Equation of State of Hot, Dense Helium

Burkhard Militzer

Two first-principles simulation techniques, path integral Monte Carlo (PIMC) and density functional molecular dynamics (DFT-MD), are applied to study hot, dense helium in the density–temperature range of 0.387 ... 5.35 gcm-3 and 500 K ... 1.28×108 K. One coherent equation of state (EOS) is derived by combining DFT-MD data at lower temperatures with PIMC results at higher temperatures. Good agreement between both techniques is found in an intermediate temperature range. For the highest temperatures, the PIMC results converge to the Debye–Hückel limiting law. In order to derive the entropy, a thermodynamically consistent free energy fit is introduced that reproduces the internal energies and pressure derived from the first-principles simulations. The equation of state is presented in the form of a table as well as a fit.

This code derives the equation of hot, dense helium. Using a 2D spline interpolation as function of temperature and density, the code computes pressure (P), internal energy (E), Helmholtz free energy (F), and entropy (S).

There are no copyright restrictions for this material but we would appreciate citations to these two articles:

1. Download the code

Available Helium EOS Code Versions
Date File Description Download Link
2022-11-04 Standard code Download eoshe_11-04-22.tar.gz

2. Installation

To install our helium EOS code:

cd ~/Downloads
tar -xzf eoshe_11-04-22.tar.gz
gfortran eoshe.f log55.f spline.f -o eoshe

If compilation fails, try another compiler or adjust compiler flags.

3. Files included

Files in the Helium EOS Package
eoshe.f Main code: computes P, E, F, S from T and ρ; outputs a test table.
log55.f 2D free energy interpolation.
spline.f Simple 1D spline interpolation.
eoshe.out Example output file for comparison.

4. Execution and tests

./eoshe > my_eoshe.out
diff eoshe.out my_eoshe.out

5. Units and conventions


rs= 2.400000  rhoHe(g/cc)=  0.387289  T(K)= 500.000  E(Ha/e)= -1.431865 ...
...
rs= 0.800000  rhoHe(g/cc)= 10.456811  T(K)= 128000000.000  E(Ha/e)= 902.363130 ...
  

All quantities are in atomic units; see our hydrogen-helium EOS table for details.

6. Limitations

Temperature range: 500 to 1.28×108 K.
Density range: 0.387289 to 5.35 g/cm³.

If you have feedback, please email militzer@berkeley.edu.

The work was supported in part by NASA and NSF.