Imaginary part of the conductivity using Kramers-Kronig relations

Abstract

In order to obtain the frequency-dependent photo-absorption in a plasma, both the real and imaginary parts of the AC conductivity are required. The real part can be deduced from the knowledge of the static conductivity (given by the Ziman-Evans formula for instance) and the Drude model. The imaginary part, required for the refraction index, can be obtained using the Kramers-Kronig relations. Usually, it is obtained by complex integration in the complex plane of the usual Kramers-Kronig relations, having $\omega'-\omega$ in the denominator. However, an alternate form of the Kramers-Kronig relation is often used in physics, especially for determining response functions. It has $\omega'^2-\omega^2$ in the denominator. We provide two determinations of the imaginary part of the conductivity for this latter form, one using a decomposition into simple elements, and the other involving a complex integration in a quarter of the complex plane.