We present first principles molecular dynamics calculations of the equation of state of liquid deuterium up to eightfold compression and temperatures between 2000 and 20000 K. We report significant technical improvements over previous density functional calculations leading to excellent agreement with gas gun shock wave experiments, which have provided well established experimental data for the deuterium Hugoniot. The principal Hugoniot is further investigated by performing simulations with rigid deuterium molecules. We also compute the double-shock Hugoniot curve and compare calculated and measured reshock temperatures.
Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B, November , 2003.