Screening Effect of Degenerate Electron Background in High Density Plasmas. I. Thermodynamic Properties

Corrections to the thermodynamic functions of high-density hydrogen plasmas arising from the screening effects of the degenerate electron liquid are investigated through the variational method based on the Gibbs-Bogoliubov inequality. The Monte Carlo solution to the one-component plasma (OCP) systems is adopted as the reference; the screening effect is taken into account through the improved dielectric function proposed recently by Utsumi and Ichimaru. Results are compared with those obtained by Galam and Hansen on the basis of different screening functions. Relative accuracy and validity of the OCP variational methods are examined on the scales of correlation functions; it is thereby noted that the exchange and Coulombic local-field corrections between electrons introduce significant modifications to the microscopic description of high density plasmas.