Transient spatial localization in dense plasmas*

Dense plasmas are prevalent throughout the universe, being present in all types of stars, the giant planets and in the laboratory [1]. In dense plasmas, a variety of anomalous phenomena have been experimentally observed on the electron-ion collisional ionization cross section [2] and rate [3] and opacity [4]. Yet the physics behind these anomalous phenomena is not clear. In addition to the plasma screening, we proposed a concept of transient spatial localization [5] to understand the physics and explain the experiments. In dense plasmas, the continuum electrons tend to be localized in finite space due to the frequent collision with particles and therefore they are not completely free in the environment. We developed a theoretical framework to deal with the effect of localization on the microscopic atomic processes of photoionization and electron impact ionization and macroscopic properties of opacity. Our findings show that the proposed concept is helpful to understand the physics behind the experiments.

[1] S. M. Vinko et al., Nature 482, 59 (2012).

[2] S. M. Vinko et al., Nat. Commun. 6, 6397 (2015).

[3] Q. Y. van den Berg et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 120, 055002 (2018).

[4] J. E. Bailey et al., Nature 517, 56 (2015).

[5] P. F. Liu et al., Commun. Phys. 1, 95 (2018).