PLASMA SCREENING EFFECTS IN THE INTERMEDIATE DEGENERACY REGION

Reports a detailed study of the screened potential due to a charged impurity imbedded in an electron plasma as a function of temperature and density. The authors have (i) determined the region of intermediate degeneracy where the extreme high- and low-temperature schemes fail; (ii) compared their screened potential with the traditionally employed Debye potential, and (iii) computed the ground-state energy of an electron trapped by this impurity potential and compared it with 'Debye' and 'temperature-dependent Thomas-Fermi' results. The significance of the striking differences obtained here is discussed.