Strongly coupled electron liquid: <i>Ab initio</i> path integral Monte Carlo simulations and dielectric theories
Tobias Dornheim, Travis Sjostrom, Shigenori Tanaka, Jan Vorberger
Abstract
The strongly coupled electron liquid provides a unique opportunity to study the complex interplay of strong coupling with quantum degeneracy effects and thermal excitations. To this end, we carry out extensive ab initio path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) simulations to compute the static structure factor, interaction energy, density response function, and the corresponding static local field correction in the range of $20\ensuremath{\le}{r}_{s}\ensuremath{\le}100$ and $0.5\ensuremath{\le}\ensuremath{\theta}\ensuremath{\le}4$. We subsequently compare these data to several dielectric approximations and find that different schemes are capable to reproduce different features of the PIMC results at certain parameters. Moreover, we provide a comprehensive data table of interaction energies and compare those to two recent parametrizations of the exchange-correlation free energy, where they are available. Finally, we briefly touch upon the possibility of a charge-density wave. The present study is complementary to previous investigations of the uniform electron gas in the warm dense matter regime and, thus, further completes our current picture of this fundamental model system at finite temperature. All PIMC data are available online.