Electrical Conductivity of Iron in Earth's Core from Microscopic Ohm's Law

Abstract

Understanding the electronic transport properties of iron under high temperatures and pressures is essential for constraining geophysical processes. The difficulty of reliably measuring these properties under Earth-core conditions calls for sophisticated theoretical methods that can support diagnostics. We present results of the electrical conductivity within the pressure and temperature ranges found in Earth's core from simulating microscopic Ohm's law using time-dependent density functional theory. Our predictions provide a new perspective on resolving discrepancies in recent experiments.

Linear-response time-dependent density functional theory approach to warm dense matter with adiabatic exchange--correlation kernels

“…From a computational point of view, an alternative to the LR-TDDFT is to use a direct perturbation by an external field to measure the density response function connecting the perturbing field with the density change induced by it [48][49][50]. These different formulations and methods for a dynamic density response function have been actively used in the WDM studies [39,[51][52][53][54]. However, in many aspects, the connection between them had not been clearly formulated and understood.…”