Modified Bridgman formula for the thermal conductivity of complex (dusty) plasma fluids

TL;DR

This paper proposes a modified Bridgman formula that correlates thermal conductivity with shear sound velocity, improving predictions for complex dusty plasma fluids where traditional models fail due to strong coupling effects.

Contribution

The authors introduce a new modification of the Bridgman formula linking thermal conductivity to shear sound velocity for strongly coupled plasma fluids.

Findings

Modified formula works well for Yukawa fluids

Improves predictions of thermal conductivity in dusty plasmas

Applicable where traditional Bridgman formula fails

Abstract

A simple and popular Bridgman's formula predicts a linear correlation between the thermal conductivity coefficient and the sound velocity of dense liquids. Unfortunately, it cannot be applied to strongly coupled plasma-related fluids, because the sound velocity can greatly increase as screening weakens. We propose a modification of the Bridgman formula by correlating the thermal conductivity coefficient with the transverse (shear) sound velocity. This approach is demonstrated to work reasonably well in screened Coulomb (Yukawa) fluids and can be useful in the context of complex (dusty) plasmas.