Phase Transition in the Simplest Plasma Model

Abstract

We have investigated the phase transition of the gas-liquid type, with an upper critical point, in a variant of the One Component Plasma model (OCP) that has a uniform but compressible compensating background. We have calculated the parameters of the critical and triple points, spinodals, and two-phase coexistence curves (binodals). We have analyzed the connection of this simplest plasma phase transition with anomalies in the spatial charge profiles of equilibrium non-uniform plasma in the local-density approximations of Thomas-Fermi or Poisson-Boltzmann-type.