Dielectric response and structural properties of finite-temperature electron liquids

TL;DR

This paper develops an analytical model for the static structure factor of finite-temperature electron liquids, enabling accurate and efficient predictions of their dielectric response and related properties across various conditions.

Contribution

It introduces a new model combining physical insights and simulation constraints to accurately describe the static structure factor of electron liquids at finite temperatures.

Findings

Model accurately reproduces static structure factor features.

Good agreement with simulation data for friction coefficient.

Facilitates improved simulations of warm dense matter.

Abstract

The dielectric response and structural properties of finite-temperature electron liquids are central to accurately describing the physical behavior of electronic systems. This study presents a robust analytical model for the static structure factor of the uniform electron gas, combining physically motivated form for the static structure factor with constraints derived from high-accuracy path integral Monte Carlo simulations. The model accurately reproduces key features of the static structure factor across a broad range of temperatures and densities. Using this static structure factor, the density response function is directly evaluated, enabling a self-consistent definition of the static local field correction. As practical applications, the model is employed to investigate the low-velocity stopping power and the electron-ion friction coefficient. Results derived for the friction coefficient show good agreement with simulation data at moderate coupling and degeneracy. The proposed approach provides a computationally efficient and reliable method for characterizing the static response properties of correlated electron systems, facilitating improved simulations of energy deposition and ionic transport in warm dense matter and other strongly coupled quantum plasmas.