Thermal Conductivity of Three-Dimensional Yukawa Liquids (Dusty Plasmas)

An improved method is proposed to investigate the behavior of a Yukawa liquid under the action of an external field strength using computer simulated nonequilibrium molecular dynamics. The thermal conductivity calculations with appropriate normalizations, in the limit of low value field strengths, are estimated over a wide range of the Coulomb coupling and screening strengths. The new simulations provide more reliable data for the thermal conductivity than the previously known results for the Yukawa liquids. The calculations show that the thermal conductivity is dependent on both the Coulomb coupling and screening parameters in the three-dimensional (3D) Yukawa liquids. The low value field strength simulation data are found to obey the universal and quasiuniversal scaling. It is shown that the homogenous nonequilibrium method can be used to predict the thermal conductivity in Yukawa systems and to understand the fundamental features of 3D dusty plasma liquids. (C) 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim