Modeling Strongly-Correlated Plasmas With Hydrodynamic Density Functional Theory

Strongly-coupled plasmas, such as ultracold neutral plasmas, dusty plasmas and warm dense matter, can be difficult model, as a complete understanding of the physics relies on both the dynamics and the underlying particle correlations. Density functional theory (DFT) is a natural formalism for describing such correlations but is limited to equilibrium systems. For non-equilibrium systems, hydrodynamic DFT (HDFT) provides a dynamic generalization of DFT that has recently been applied to plasmas and other fluids [1, 2]. One of the primary advantages of HDFT is that it establishes a direct connection to atomic-scale correlations self-consistently and without the need for an ad hoc equation of state. We extend the HDFT model to include the dynamics of a temperature field, which can be highly relevant to the description of plasmas, as well as examine various choices of correlation functionals in the HDFT model. The governing equations are solved numerically, and we address both the computational challenges that arise from the nonlocal correlation effects as well as the theoretical challenges associated with heterogeneous and strongly-coupled systems. Finally, we explore the role that correlations play in plasma waves.

[1] A. J. Archer, J. Chem. Phys., 130(1), 014509 (2009).

[2] A. Diaw and M. S. Murillo, Phys. Rev. E, 92(1), 013107 (2015).