Equation of state for warm dense lithium: A first principles investigation

Abstract

The quantum molecular dynamics based on the density functional theory has been adopted to simulate the equation of state for the shock compressed lithium. In contrary to some earlier experimental measurement and theoretical simulation, there is not any evidence of the 'kink' in the Hugoniot curve in our accurate simulation. Throughout the shock compression process, only a simple solid-to-liquid melting behavior is demonstrated, instead of complicated solid-solid phase transitions. Moreover, the x-ray absorption near-edge spectroscopy has been predicted as a feasible way to diagnose the structural evolution of warm dense lithium in this density region.