Ground state of a confined Yukawa plasma including correlation effects

Abstract

The ground state of an externally confined one-component Yukawa plasma is derived analytically using the local density approximation (LDA). In particular, the radial density profile is computed. The results are compared with the recently obtained mean-field (MF) density profile \cite{henning.pre06}. While the MF results are more accurate for weak screening, LDA with correlations included yields the proper description for large screening. By comparison with first-principle simulations for three-dimensional spherical Yukawa crystals we demonstrate that both approximations complement each other. Together they accurately describe the density profile in the full range of screening parameters.