Collaborative Research: Research on Strongly Coupled Plasmas

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A Collaborative Project of theoretical/computational research on strongly coupled plasmas will be continued by Boston College (BC; Dr. Gabor J. Kalman, Principal Investigator) and the University of Vermont (UVM; Dr. Kenneth I. Golden, Principal Investigator).Strong Coulomb interactions are featured by a variety of physical systems. Of primary interest are laboratory dusty plasmas, charged particles confined in cryogenic traps and storage rings, layered charged particle systems in semiconductor quantum wells, and astrophysical plasmas (giant planetary and white dwarf interiors, e.g.). The joint BC/UVM research project will focus on these systems.The proposed research addresses some of the major theoretical issues related toExperiments in strongly coupled systems: correlation and static structure functions, thermodynamics (equation of state and phase boundaries), dielectric response and collective mode behavior. Similar issues arise in multi-layer semiconductor plasmas whose consideration also forms a part of the proposed work.The main approach to be used in the proposed investigations relies on a series of works by the Principal Investigators in which a method especially appropriate for the description of the dynamical behavior of strongly coupled (correlated) plasmas was worked out. This method, referred to as the Quasi-Localized Charge Approximation, was used in the previous funding periods and has provided theoretical, transparent models for the interpretation of laboratory experiments and computer simulations. This analytical work will be paralleled by molecular dynamics simulations done in collaboration with a research group of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Budapest)].