Jensen-Feynman approach to the statistics of interacting electrons

Faussurier et al. [Phys. Rev. E 65, 016403 (2001)] proposed to use a variational principle relying on Jensen-Feynman (or Gibbs-Bogoliubov) inequality in order to optimize the accounting for two-particle interactions in the calculation of canonical partition functions. It consists in a decomposition into a reference electron system and a first-order correction. The procedure appears to be very efficient in order to evaluate the free energy and the orbital populations. In this work, we present numerical applications of the method and propose to extend it using a reference energy which includes the interaction between two electrons inside a given orbital. This is possible thanks to our efficient recursion relation for the calculation of partition functions. We also show that a linear reference energy, however, is usually sufficient to achieve a good precision and that the most promising way to improve the approach of Faussurier et al. is to apply Jensen's inequality to a more convenient convex function.Comment: submitted to Physical Review

SOLAR MIXTURE OPACITY CALCULATIONS USING DETAILED CONFIGURATION AND LEVEL ACCOUNTING TREATMENTS

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First New Solar Models With Opas Opacity Tables

Stellar seismology appears more and more as a powerful tool for a better determination of the fundamental properties of solar-type stars. However, the particular case of the Sun is still challenging. For about a decade now, the helioseismic sound-speed determination has continued to disagree with the standard solar model (SSM) prediction, questioning the reliability of this model. One of the sources of uncertainty could be in the treatment of the transport of radiation from the solar core to the surface. In this Letter, we use the new OPAS opacity tables, recently available for solar modeling, to address this issue. We discuss first the peculiarities of these tables, then we quantify their impact on the solar sound-speed and density profiles using the reduced OPAS tables taken on the grids of the OPAL ones. We use the two evolution codes, Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics and Code Liégeois d'Evolution Stellaire, that led to similar conclusions in the solar radiative zone. In comparison to commonly used OPAL opacity tables, the new solar models are computed for the most recent photospheric composition with OPAS tables and present improvements to the location of the base of the convective zone and to the description of the solar radiative zone in comparison to the helioseismic observations, even if the differences in the Rosseland mean opacity do not exceed 6%. We finally carry out a comparison to a solar model computed with the OP opacity tables

Equivalence between pressure- and structure-defined ionization in hot dense carbon

International audienceThe determination of the ionization of a system in the hot dense regime is a long standing issue. Recent studies have shown inconsistencies between standard predictions using average atom models and evaluations deduced from electronic transport properties computed with quantum molecular dynamics simulations [Bethkenhagen et al., Phys. Rev. Res. 2, 023260 (2020)], 10.1103/PhysRevResearch.2.023260. Here, we propose a definition of the ionization based on its effect on the plasma structure as given by the pair distribution function (PDF), and on the concept of effective one-component plasma (eOCP). We also introduce a definition based on the total pressure and on a modelization of the electronic pressure. We show the equivalence of these definitions on two studies of carbon along the 100 eV isotherm and the 10 g/cm3 isochor. Simulations along the 100 eV isotherm are obtained with the newly implemented EXT. First principles molecular dynamics (FPMD) method in ABINIT for densities ranging from 1 to 500 g/cm3and along the 10 g/cm3 isochor with the recently published Spectral quadrature DFT (SQDFT) simulations, between 8 and 860 eV. The resulting ionizations are compared to the predictions of the average-atom code QAAM which is based on the muffin-tin approximation. A disagreement between the eOCP and the actual PDFs (non-OCP behavior) is interpreted as the onset of bonding in the system

Photoionization cross sections of iron isonuclear sequence ions: Fe2+ to Fe6+

International audienceWe have measured the absolute photoionization cross sections of Fe2+ to Fe6+ ions in the photon energy range covering the first ionization threshold up to 160 eV. Particular interest is emphasized on the region of the 3p-->3d excitations. The experimental data are compared to the results of calculations we have performed using a spectral opacity code, as well as to available R -matrix and one-electron calculations. It is shown that often the theoretical results tend to overestimate the intensity of the 3p-->3d photoexcitations. An anomalously low value of the integrated oscillator strength is measured for Fe2+ ion

Recent developments on photoionization measurements on mutiply-charged ions at ASTRID and SOLEIL

International audienceThe merged-beams technique, which consists in merging an ion beam with a synchrotron radiation beam, allows to determine absolute photoionization cross sections on ionic species. In this poster, we will discuss recent results we have obtained on ions of the iron isonuclear sequence in the photon energy range covering the first ionization threshold up to 160 eV. Future developments of the experiments at SOLEIL will be also presented

Testing stellar opacities with laser facilities

Helio and asteroseismology (SoHo, KEPLER...) have produced observed acoustic oscillations of thousands of stars which characteristics are deeply linked to the transport of radiation inside the stars. However, the comparisons of seismic data with model predictions have led to significant discrepancies, which could be due to a bad knowledge of production and transport of energy.β-Cephei are pulsating stars, progenitor of supernovae and thus deeply linked to our understanding of stellar medium enrichment. Their study has shown some difficulty to predict the observed oscillation modes, which are directly linked to an opacity bump of the elements of the iron group (Cr, Fe, Ni) at log T=5.25 (κ-mechanism). We will show that several parameters of the stars (mass, age, metallicity) have a great influence on the amplitude of the bump, which impact their structure. We will then present the final results of an experiment conducted at LULI 2000 in 2011 on Cr, Fe and Ni compared to several opacity codes. We will show how to improve the opacity in the range of temperature around log T= 5.3.The Sun is a privilege place to test and validate physics. Since the recent update of the solar composition, there is a well established large discrepancy (Turck-Chièze et al. 2001) between solar models and seismic data, visible on the solar sound speed profile comparison.An explanation could be that the calculations of energy transport are not correctly taken into account.Unfortunately, there are very few experiments to validate these calculations (Bailey et al. 2014). That's why we are proposing an opacity experiment on a high-energy laser like LMJ, in the conditions of the radiative zone. We are exploiting in that purpose an approach called the Double Ablation Front to reach these high temperatures and densities at LTE and validate or not plasma effects and line widths. We will show the principle of this technique and the results of our simulations on several elements.In the mean time, we are also exploiting new opacity calculations thanks to the OPAS code (Blancard et al. 2012) at the conditions of the solar radiative zone. We will show the impact of these calculations on the solar model

Comparison of Fe and Ni opacity calculations for a better understanding of pulsating stellar envelopes

International audienceOpacity is an important ingredient of the evolution of stars. The calculation of opacity coefficients is complicated by the fact that the plasma contains partially ionized heavy ions that contribute to opacity dominated by H and He. Up to now, the astrophysical community has greatly benefited from the work of the contributions of Los Alamos [1], Livermore [2] and the Opacity Project (OP) [3]. However unexplained differences of up to 50% in the radiative forces and Rosseland mean values for Fe have been noticed for conditions corresponding to stellar envelopes. Such uncertainty has a real impact on the understanding of pulsating stellar envelopes, on the excitation of modes, and on the identification of the mode frequencies. Temperature and density conditions equivalent to those found in stars can now be produced in laboratory experiments for various atomic species. Recently the photo-absorption spectra of nickel and iron plasmas have been measured during the LULI 2010 campaign, for temperatures between 15 and 40 eV and densities of ˜3 mg/cm3. A large theoretical collaboration, the "OPAC", has been formed to prepare these experiments. We present here the set of opacity calculations performed by eight different groups for conditions relevant to the LULI 2010 experiment and to astrophysical stellar envelope conditions

Theoretical and experimental activities on opacities for a good interpretation of seismic stellar probes

International audienceOpacity calculations are basic ingredients of stellar modelling. They play a crucial role in the interpretation of acoustic modes detected by SoHO, COROT and KEPLER. In this review we present our activities on both theoretical and experimental sides. We show new calculations of opacity spectra and comparisons between eight groups who produce opacity spectra calculations in the domain where experiments are scheduled. Real differences are noticed with real astrophysical consequences when one extends helioseismology to cluster studies of different compositions. Two cases are considered presently: (1) the solar radiative zone and (2) the beta Cephei envelops. We describe how our experiments are performed and new preliminary results on nickel obtained in the campaign 2010 at LULI 2000 at Polytechnique