Astrophysical Dense Plasmas in Degenerate Stars

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Astrophysical condensed plasmas include those found in the interiors, surfaces, and outer envelopes of such astronomical objects as neutron stars, white dwarfs, the sun, brown dwarfs, and giant planets. Among the elementary processes which have been investigated in this Scientific Research Program are those related to atomic transitions, electronic conduction, radiative transfer, energy generation and dissipation as well as the nuclear processes. The rates of these physical processes depend sensitively on a change in the plasma states, such as freezing transition, chemical separation, supercritical fluids, ionization or insulator-to-metal transition, and magnetic transitions, resulting from a compression in density and/or a change in temperature. The issues on the equations of state and construction of the phase diagrams are thus intimately related to theoretical understanding of these elementary processes and of structure, evolution, and dynamics of degenerate stars, such as white dwarfs and giant planets. Specifically clarified are :A.Thermonuclear and pycnonuclear reactions : Thermal enhancement of solid pycnonuclear rates in dense stellar matter ; Enhanced pycnonuclear reactions in ultrahigh pressure metalsB.Transport processes : Equations of state with insulator-to-metal transitions and convective transport ; Electric and thermal resistivities of dense high-Z materials with ionization transition ; Radiative opacities of dense materials with ionization transitionC.Phase transitions : Quantum Monte Carlo simulation study of freezing transition in a condensed plasma ; Fluid-solid phase boundaries and chemical separation ; Insulator-to-metal transitions in dense matterD.Stellar Seismology : Non-radial oscillations in magnetic stars ; Excitation of Jovian oscillations by a colliding comet ; Probing Solar structure by acoustic propagation