Melting of the Wigner crystal at finite temperature

Abstract

Melting of the Wigner crystal is studied in a new expansion scheme which is much more powerful than the Wigner-Kirkwood expansion of the quantum correction. The theory does not include the symmetry effect. The free energy including the quantum correction is evaluated with full use of the recent Monte Carlo results obtained for the classical one-component plasma. The melting entropy as well as the melting curve is obtained as a result of various extrapolations of properties for the liquid phase, in the approximation up to the sixth ‘‘reduced moment’’ of our expansion.