Eur. Phys. J. B (2017) 90: 76
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2017-70532-y

Regular Article

Spin-resolved correlations in the warm-dense homogeneous electron gas^*

¹ Department of Physics, Kurukshetra University, 136 119 Kurukshetra, India
² Department of Physics, S.D. College, 133 001 Ambala Cantt., India

^a e-mail: rkmoudgil13@gmail.com

Received: 12 September 2016
Received in final form: 10 December 2016
Published online: 26 April 2017

Abstract

We have studied spin-resolved correlations in the warm-dense homogeneous electron gas by determining the linear density and spin-density response functions, within the dynamical self-consistent mean-field theory of Singwi et al. The calculated spin-resolved pair-correlation function g_σσ′(r) is compared with the recent restricted path-integral Monte Carlo (RPIMC) simulations due to Brown et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 146405 (2013)], while interaction energy E_int and exchange-correlation free energy F_xc with the RPIMC and very recent ab initio quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations by Dornheim et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 156403 (2016)]. g_↑↓(r) is found to be in good agreement with the RPIMC data, while a mismatch is seen in g_↑↑(r) at small r where it becomes somewhat negative. As an interesting result, it is deduced that a non-monotonic T-dependence of g(0) is driven primarily by g_↑↓(0). Our results of E_int and F_xc exhibit an excellent agreement with the QMC study due to Dornheim et al., which deals with the finite-size correction quite accurately. We observe, however, a visible deviation of E_int from the RPIMC data for high densities (~8% at r_s = 1). Further, we have extended our study to the fully spin-polarized phase. Again, with the exception of high density region, we find a good agreement of E_int with the RPIMC data. This points to the need of settling the problem of finite-size correction in the spin-polarized phase also. Interestingly, we also find that the thermal effects tend to oppose spatial localization as well as spin polarization of electrons.