Self-Consistent Description of Dense Plasma Mixtures

High energy-density laboratory plasmas are often multi-component, and a self-consistent hydrodynamic description can be challenging to construct due to effects such as partial pressures. Simplifications are typically used to mitigate these challenges, such as velocity/temperature fields that do not resolve individual species and mixing rules between single-component equations of state; however, these approximations can break down in experimentally relevant regimes [1, 2]. Here, we extend the work of Diaw and Murillo [3] to construct a self-consistent model of plasma mixtures within the framework of the BBGKY hierarchy. Not only does this extension provide a more consistent description of a plasma mixture that resolves every field for each species, it also establishes a direct connection to the underlying atomic correlations. Simulation results are presented for interfacial mixing within ICF targets, and comparisons are made to more traditional hydrodynamic models. 

[1] P. Amendt, S. C. Wilks, C. Bellei, C. K. Li and R. D. Petrasso. "The potential role of electric fields and plasma barodiffusion on the inertial confinement fusion database." Physics of Plasmas 18, 056308 (2011).

[2] L. G. Stanton, J. N. Glosli and M. S. Murillo. “Multiscale molecular dynamics model for heterogeneous charged systems”. Physical Review X 8, 021044 (2018).

[3] A. Diaw and M. S. Murillo. “Generalized hydrodynamics model for strongly coupled plasmas”. Physical Review E 92, 013107 (2015).