Dynamical and optical properties of warm dense hydrogen - art. no. 184110

We report dynamical and optical properties of hydrogen (deuterium) around t he region of the principal Hugoniot that starts from the cryogenically cool ed molecular liquid. These properties were determined by finite-temperature density functional (FTDF) molecular dynamics (MD) simulations within the l ocal density and generalized gradient approximations. The principal Hugonio t, calculated from the FTDF-MD equation of stare, agrees with gas-gun and r ecent laser-shock experiments for pressures up to 50 GPa. However, the maxi mum compression of the FTDF-MD Hugoniot (4.6 at 52 GPa) significantly diffe rs from that of the laser shock experiment (6 at about 150 GPa). On the oth er hand, the optical reflectivities show reasonable agreement with the lase r measurements for pressures up to 70 GPa. The system smoothly dissociates along the Hugoniot with the electrical conductivity reaching a value of 400 0 Ohm (-1) cm(-1) at maximum compression. We also obtain good agreement wit h previous tight-binding and ab initio molecular dynamics studies.