Search NASA⌕ Search
Home/Archive/DOE OSTI

DOE OSTI · 2575170

Unraveling electronic correlations in warm dense quantum plasmas

Dornheim, Tobias [Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), Görlitz (Germany); Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000172936615)·Döppner, Tilo [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000257037125)·Tolias, Panagiotis [Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm (Sweden)] (ORCID:0000000196328104)·Böhme, Maximilian P. [Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), Görlitz (Germany); Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden (Germany); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Technische Universität Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000302903628)·Fletcher, Luke B. [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000271207194)·Gawne, Thomas [Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), Görlitz (Germany); Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000199983606)·Graziani, Frank R. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000272040509)·Kraus, Dominik [Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden (Germany); Univ. of Rostock (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000263504180)·MacDonald, Michael J. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000262956978)·Moldabekov, Zhandos A. [Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), Görlitz (Germany); Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000297259208)·Schwalbe, Sebastian [Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), Görlitz (Germany); Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000245610158)·Gericke, Dirk O. [Univ. of Warwick, Coventry (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000167979004)·Vorberger, Jan [Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000159269192)
View original source ↗Read source document ↗Export metadata ↓

Abstract

The study of matter at extreme densities and temperatures has emerged as a highly active frontier at the interface of plasma physics, material science and quantum chemistry with relevance for planetary modeling and inertial confinement fusion. A particular feature of such warm dense matter is the complex interplay of Coulomb interactions, quantum effects, and thermal excitations, making its rigorous theoretical description challenging. Here, we demonstrate how ab initio path integral Monte Carlo simulations allow us to unravel this intricate interplay for the example of strongly compressed beryllium, focusing on two X-ray Thomson scattering data sets obtained at the National Ignition Facility. We find excellent agreement between simulation and experiment with a very high level of consistency between independent observations without the need for any empirical input parameters. Our results call into question previously used chemical models, with important implications for the interpretation of scattering experiments and radiation hydrodynamics simulations.

Explore related subjects

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGYChemical physicsLaser-produced plasmas

Keep this discovery

Explore connections, maps & timelines

BibTeXRIS

Dornheim, Tobias [Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), Görlitz (Germany); Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000172936615), Döppner, Tilo [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000257037125), Tolias, Panagiotis [Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm (Sweden)] (ORCID:0000000196328104), Böhme, Maximilian P. [Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), Görlitz (Germany); Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden (Germany); Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States); Technische Universität Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000302903628), Fletcher, Luke B. [SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC), Menlo Park, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000271207194), Gawne, Thomas [Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), Görlitz (Germany); Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000199983606), Graziani, Frank R. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000272040509), Kraus, Dominik [Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden (Germany); Univ. of Rostock (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000263504180), MacDonald, Michael J. [Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)] (ORCID:0000000262956978), Moldabekov, Zhandos A. [Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), Görlitz (Germany); Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000297259208), Schwalbe, Sebastian [Center for Advanced Systems Understanding (CASUS), Görlitz (Germany); Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000245610158), Gericke, Dirk O. [Univ. of Warwick, Coventry (United Kingdom)] (ORCID:0000000167979004), Vorberger, Jan [Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden (Germany)] (ORCID:0000000159269192). 2025-06-02. Unraveling electronic correlations in warm dense quantum plasmas. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-60278-3

Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.

KEEP EXPLORING

Related reports

DOE OSTI2026

Fast solvers for tokamak fluid models with PETSc

Multigrid (MG) is widely recognized as a highly effective solver for the model problem, the Laplacian, but textbook MG fails on most problems of interest. MG methods have been applied to complex, real-world applications with careful consideration of the physical model and discretization. In this work we develop the first step in applying MG methods to science and engineering relevant magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) tokamak models in the M3D-C1 (https://m3dc1.pppl.gov) fusion energy science code. The semi-implicit time integrator in M3D-C1 is composed of many linear solves. The implicit advance of the momentum equation is the most challenging and is the focus of this work. The current production solver in M3D-C1 is a block Jacobi (BJ) preconditioner within a Krylov solver, where blocks group degrees of freedom on planes of constant toroidal coordinate. BJ convergence degrades as the number of planes increases due to the spectral properties of the matrix preconditioned with BJ. The partially magnetic field-aligned, regular toroidal grid structure in M3D-C1 is amenable to semi-coarsening geometric MG in the toroidal direction. This paper develops such a solver and demonstrates competitive performance on a runaway electron model of a SPARC (https://cfs.energy/technology/sparc) disruption, and superior robustness on a stellarator model on which the BJ solver fails to converge.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Final Report: A Multi-Channel Fusion Product

The goal of this project was to measure charged fusion products from the d(d,p)t reaction in MAST-U plasmas as a function of time and position with good energy resolution using a system of up to six charged particle detectors. The data from this new diagnostic will make it possible to determine the neutral beam ion density profile as a function of R, z, and t with reduced model dependency and contribute new information to a global analysis of fast ion diagnostic data needed for the determination of the fast ion distribution function (velocity space tomography).

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2026

Unitary Qubit Lattice Algorithms for Plasma Physics

This final technical report summarizes research conducted under DOE Award DE-SC0021653 to develop unitary Quantum Lattice Algorithms for modeling electromagnetic wave propagation and scattering in complex media, including plasmas. The project developed and validated quantum-inspired formulations of Maxwell's equations that preserve unitary evolution and can be evaluated on classical high-performance computing systems while providing a foundation for future quantum-computing implementations. Major accomplishments include the development of two- and three-dimensional algorithms for electromagnetic scattering; scalable, distributed-memory implementations demonstrated on the Perlmutter supercomputer; formulations for nonlinear lossless fluid dynamics and cold, lossless, inhomogeneous magnetized plasmas; and an explicit quantum algorithm for a time-discretized Lorenz model. Simulations reproduced a range of characteristic wave phenomena, including transient effects that are not readily apparent in conventional frequency-domain studies, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed approach for modeling complex electromagnetic and plasma systems. The work establishes a unified theoretical and computational framework for quantum and quantum-inspired simulation and provides a foundation for future implementation on fault-tolerant quantum systems.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗