Electron heat transport in a proton-electron system for various coupling regimes using Particle-In-Cell and classical Molecular Dynamics methods
Résumé
Non-equilibrium Molecular Dynamics (NEMD) and Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations are employed to estimate the electron thermal conductivity in a Two-Component Plasma (TCP) consisting of electrons and protons. Simulations are performed over a range of Coulomb coupling parameters 0.02 ≤ Γ ≤ 2. For weakly coupled regimes (Γ < 0.1), the results show good agreement with the Landau-Spitzer and Lee-More models. A comparison with the One-Component Plasma (OCP), in which electrons are mobile and protons form a neutralizing background, reveals a systematic decrease of the electron thermal conductivity in the TCP. This reduction highlights the impact of ion interactions on electron heat transport.