Measurement of the Resistivity in a Partially Degenerate, Strongly Coupled Plasma

Plasmas with densities of $6\times {10}^{22}\frac{e}{{\mathrm{cm}}^3}$ and temperatures of 10 eV have been created by means of capillary discharge. These parameters indicate that the plasmas are partially degenerate and strongly coupled. By measuring the size of the plasma, the current, and the voltage, one can infer the resistivity of the plasma and compare it with calculated values from various transport theories. The results of this experiment show that theories that do not accurately model the complete electron-ion interaction within this regime can be inaccurate by as much as a factor of 200.