English

Capturing many-body effects in electrical conductivity of warm dense matter

Plasma Physics 2026-05-13 v1 Materials Science Computational Physics

Abstract

Conductivity models for warm dense matter inform simulations of planetary structure and fusion experiments. State-of-the-art conductivity calculations based on density functional theory approximate many-body physics and neglect electron-electron scattering lifetimes. We introduce a many-body framework for electrical conductivity using the GW approximation of the electronic self-energy. For beryllium, improved transition energies yield a surprisingly large reduction in low-temperature DC conductivity, while electron-electron scattering primarily reduces high-temperature DC conductivity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2605.11308,
  title  = {Capturing many-body effects in electrical conductivity of warm dense matter},
  author = {Brian P. Robinson and Alina Kononov and Lucas J. Stanek and Andrew D. Baczewski and André Schleife and Stephanie B. Hansen},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.11308},
  year   = {2026}
}