Intrinsic bulk viscosity of the one-component plasma

TL;DR

This study computes and analyzes the intrinsic bulk viscosity of the one-component plasma across various coupling strengths using molecular dynamics simulations, revealing a maximum at moderate coupling and effects of electron screening.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive model for bulk viscosity in the OCP over a wide range of coupling strengths and explores the impact of electron screening on viscosity.

Findings

Bulk viscosity peaks at pprox; nd is much smaller than shear viscosity.

Electron screening reduces bulk viscosity by lowering excess heat capacity.

Bulk viscosity's frequency dependence shows a peak near twice the plasma frequency.

Abstract

Intrinsic bulk viscosity of the one-component plasma (OCP) is computed and analyzed using equilibrium molecular dynamics simulations and the Green-Kubo formalism. It is found that bulk viscosity exhibits a maximum at $\Gamma \approx 1$, corresponding to the condition that the average kinetic energy of particles equals the potential energy at the average inter-particle spacing. The weakly coupled and strongly coupled limits are analyzed and used to construct a model that captures the full range of coupling strengths simulated: $\Gamma \approx 10^{-2} - 10^2$. Simulations are also run of the Yukawa one-component plasma (YOCP) in order to understand the impact of electron screening. It is found that electron screening leads to a smaller bulk viscosity due to a reduction in the excess heat capacity of the system. Bulk viscosity is shown to be at least an order of magnitude smaller than shear viscosity in both the OCP and YOCP. The generalized frequency-dependent bulk viscosity coefficient is also analyzed. This is found to exhibit a peak near twice the plasma frequency in strongly coupled conditions, which is associated with the oscillatory decay observed in the bulk viscosity autocorrelation function. The generalized shear and bulk viscosity coefficients are found to have a similar magnitude for $\omega \gtrsim 2\omega_p$ at strongly coupled conditions.