THERMODYNAMIC AND TRANSPORT-PROPERTIES OF DENSE HYDROGEN PLASMAS

Thermodynamic and transport properties of dense plasmas are expressed by Green's functions within a consistent quantum statistical approach. The equation of state for hydrogen plasma is evaluated within a gener alized Beth-Uhlenbeck approach utilizing a quasiparticle picture for t he one-and two-particle states. Taking into account also further clust ers such as dimers and molecular ions, the stability behavior of the t hermodynamic functions is studied with respect to the hypothetical pla sma phase transition. The electrical and thermal conductivity, as well as the thermopower, are then calculated within the linear response th eory as given by Zubarev. Especially, the effects of arbitrary degener acy, ion-ion structure factor, screening, and of partial ionization ar e studied. The interactions between the various species are treated on the T matrix level. The numerical results interpolate between the Spi tzer theory for fully ionized, nondegenerate plasmas and the Ziman the ory for metallic densities. The plasma phase transition is accompanied by a metal-nonmetal transition, which is characterized by drastic cha nges of the electronic properties, as can be deduced from the behavior of the transport properties.