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Abstract
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We present a theory for the dynamical ion structure factor (DISF) and ion stopping power in an unmagnetized
collisional quantum plasma with degenerate electron fluids and nondegenerate strongly correlated ion fluids. Our
theory is based on the fluctuation dissipation theorem and the quantum plasma dielectric constant that is deduced
from a linearized viscoelastic quantum hydrodynamical (LVQHD) model. The latter incorporates the essential
physics of quantum forces, which are associated with the quantum statistical pressure, electron-exchange, and
electron-correlation effects, the quantum electron recoil effect caused by the dispersion of overlapping electron
wave functions that control the dynamics of degenerate electron fluids, and the viscoelastic properties of strongly
correlated ion fluids. Both degenerate electrons and nondegenerate strongly correlated ions are coupled with each
other via the space charge electric force. Thus, our LVQHD theory is valid for a collisional quantum plasma
at atomic scales with a wide range of the ion coupling parameter, the plasma composition, and plasma number
densities that are relevant for compressed plasmas in laboratories (inertial confinement fusion schemes) and in
astrophysical environments (e.g., warm dense matter and the cores of white dwarf stars). It is found that quantum
electron effects and viscoelastic properties of strongly correlated ions significantly affect the features of the DISF
and the ion stopping power (ISP). Unlike previous theories, which have studied ion correlations in terms of the
ion coupling parameter, by neglecting the essential physics of collective effects that are competing among each
other, we have here developed a method to evaluate the dependence of the plasma static and dynamical features
in terms of individual parameters, like the Wigner-Seitz radius, the ion atomic number, and the ion temperature.
It is found that due to the complex nature of charge screening in quantum plasmas, the ion coupl
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