Thermodynamic properties of the nonzero-temperature, quantum-mechanical, one-component plasma

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Abstract
The thermodynamic properties of the quantum-mechanical one-component plasma are calculated at all temperatures for four densities at the high-density end of the metallic region. The Slater sum (diagonal density matrix) is obtained by using a nonzero-temperature variational principle with the simplest credible approximations. The Slater sum is approximated as the product of the ideal Fermi-gas Slater sum and a product of pair functions. Various methods for calculating thermodynamic quantities are investigated with the main emphasis on the pressure. In calculating the thermodynamic properties, the effects of Fermi statistics are included in a nonperturbative manner using Lado's method. The hypernetted-chain approximation is used to compute the pair correlation functions. Three different approximations are used for the three-body correlation functions so that errors may be estimated. The free energy is calculated by integrating the energy over temperature, while holding the volume fixed. Differentiating the free energy with respect to volume was found to yield more accurate pressures than using the virial theorem. Tables of the excess energies, pressures, and free energy are given for four densities and 20 temperatures.