Warm dense matter conductivity including electron-electron collisions

Abstract

The controversy with respect to the role of electron-electron collisions in the dynamic conductivity of dense plasmas is resolved. In particular, the dc conductivity is analyzed in the low-density, non-degenerate limit where the Spitzer theory is valid and electron-electron collisions lead to the well-known reduction of the result for a Lorentz plasma. With increasing degeneracy, the contribution of electron-electron collisions to the dc conductivity is decreasing and can be neglected for the liquid metal domain where the Ziman-Faber theory is applicable. We show how electron-electron collisions have to be implemented in calculations based on the Kubo-Greenwood formula which is prevalently applied in simulations for the frequency-dependent conductivity in the warm dense matter region, i.e. for arbitrary degeneracy.