Electrical conductivity tensor of dense plasma in magnetic fields

TL;DR

This paper calculates the electrical conductivity tensor of dense plasma in neutron star crusts considering magnetic field effects, screening, and nuclear correlations, revealing temperature-dependent behaviors relevant for astrophysical models.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive calculation of the anisotropic electrical conductivity tensor in dense plasma under magnetic fields, including effects of screening and nuclear correlations, for the first time in this context.

Findings

Conductivity has a minimum at a non-zero temperature.

At low temperatures, conductivity decreases.

Conductivity increases as a power law with temperature.

Abstract

Electrical conductivity of finite-temperature plasma in neutron star crusts is studied for applications in magneto-hydrodynamical description of compact stars. We solve the Boltzmann kinetic equation in relaxation time approximation taking into account the anisotropy of transport due to the magnetic field, the effects of dynamical screening in the scattering matrix element and corre- lations among the nuclei. We show that conductivity has a minimum at a non-zero temperature, a low-temperature decrease and a power-law increase with increasing temperature. Selected numerical results are shown for matter composed of carbon, iron, and heavier nuclei present in the outer crusts of neutron star.