CORRECTION OF THE STATISTICAL-MODEL OF MATTER NEAR NUCLEI

A simple method is proposed to overcome the difficulties of the Thomas -Fermi model caused by the inadequacy of the semiclassical approach ne ar nuclei. As a result the divergences of the quantum corrections to t he energy and free energy in the origin vanish, the Scott correction a ppears, and agreement between the statistical model and perturbation t heory is restored for superhigh pressures and/or temperatures. A compa rison of the refined statistical results with those of band-structure calculations in the high-compression limit and those of the Saha model in the high-temperature limit demonstrates good quantitative agreemen t.