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Center for Nonlinear Studies |
Dense quantum plasmas, for example warm dense matter (WDM), represent an ongoing challenge for theoretical characterization. This is in general is due to the strong coupling between the ions and the quantum degeneracy of the electrons. While density functional theory (DFT) is the gold standard approach for WDM, the orbital-based Kohn-Sham formulation becomes computational prohibitive as temperature increases. In contrast the standard orbital-free Thomas-Fermi approximation becomes accurate only at very hot conditions. I will detail where the bottlenecks and break downs in effectiveness occur for these methods, as well as our recent advances and approaches in orbital-free density functional theory which have been shown to have excellent agreement with Kohn-Sham at lower temperatures and extend to very high temperatures without increase in cost for both equilibrium and transport properties.