Thermodynamic Properties of Gaseous Plasmas in the Zero-Temperature Limit

✍ Scribed by I. Iosilevskiy

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 265 KB
• Volume: 49
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0005-8025
• DOI: 10.1002/ctpp.200910082

✦ Synopsis

Ionization "stairs" in thermal and caloric EOS

Limiting structure of thermodynamic functions of gaseous plasmas is under consideration in the limit of extremely low temperature and density. Remarkable tendency, which was claimed previously [1-3], is carried to extreme. The point is that the discussed limit (T → 0; n → 0) is carried out at fixed value for chemical potential of electrons (μ el = const) or "atoms" (μ a = Zμ el + μ i = const) or "molecule" (μ m↔2a = 2μ a = const) etc. In this limit both equations of state (EOS) thermal and caloric ones, obtain almost identical stepped structure ("ionization stairs" [3]) when one uses special forms for exposition of these EOS as a function of electron chemical potential: i.e. PV/RT for thermal EOS and U -(3/2)PV for caloric EOS vs. μ el . Examples of this limiting structure are exposed at figures 1 and 2 for thermal and caloric EOS of lithium and helium plasmas [4][5][6]. For rigorous theoretical proof of existing the limit, which is under discussion (Saha-limit) in the case of hydrogen see [7,8] and references therein.