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arXiv · 2402.09157

On the Thomas-Fermi model: Gabor J. Kalman's contribution and numerical approximations

Jean-Christophe Pain
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Abstract

In this article, we would like to pay tribute to Gabor Kalman, outlining his contribution to a model widely used in dense plasma physics: the high-temperature Thomas-Fermi model. The approach of Ruoxian Ying and Kalman relies on the separation of the bound and free electrons, a physically reasonable definition of the bound electrons, a description of the source density in the Poisson equation through the electron-ion and ion-ion pair correlation functions and a determination of the degree of ionization from the minimization of the total free energy. We also report on different approximations of the function $\Phi$, which is a cornerstone of the original Thomas-Femi model.

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Jean-Christophe Pain. 2024-02-14. On the Thomas-Fermi model: Gabor J. Kalman's contribution and numerical approximations. https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.09157

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