Pressure Fluctuations in Nonideal Plasma

Fluctuations of pressure of singly ionized nonideal plasma are studied using the fluctuation approach which provides the self-consistent joint description of free and weakly bound electron states. The classical molecular dynamics method is used. The electron-ion interaction is described by the density- and temperature-independent cutoff Coulomb potential. The results for partially ionized plasma are related to the Gryaznov-losilevsky effective repulsion which could suppress the thermodynamic plasma instability. The fully ionized plasma region is found where pressure fluctuation distribution can be approximated by the superposition of two Gauss distribution functions. It could be considered as a precursor of the plasma phase transition. (C) 2010 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim