2020/07/14 by Simoni, Jacopo, Daligault, Jerome
#Disordered Systems and Neural Networks (cond-mat.dis-nn) #FOS: Physical sciences #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2007.06747
An accurate description of electron-ion interactions in materials is crucial for our understanding of their equilibrium and non-equilibrium properties. Here, we assess the properties of frictional forces experienced by ions in non-crystalline metallic systems, including liquid metals and warm dense plasmas, that arise from electronic excitations driven by the nuclear motion due to the presence of a continuum of low-lying electronic states. To this end, we perform detailed ab-initio calculations of the full friction tensor that characterizes the set of friction forces. The nonadiabatic electron-ion interactions introduce hydrodynamic couplings between the ionic degrees of freedom, which are sizeable between nearest neigbors. The friction tensor is generally inhomogeneous, anisotropic and non-diagonal, especially at lower densities.