Molecular Dynamics Simulations for the Shear Viscosity of the One-Component Plasma

We discuss two methods for determining the shear viscosity of a fluid of particles with Yukawa interaction potential (a one-component plasma). Both methods are based on computing the equilibrium dynamics using large-scale molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. Our MD results illustrate that the hydrodynamic method for computing the shear viscosity is feasible and therefore complements the more widely used method based on the Green-Kubo relation. We expect that in the future our shear viscosity calculations will be used to assist with the interpretation and analysis of x-ray scattering experiments, which could in principle measure this fundamental dynamical quantity. © 2012 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH and Co. KGaA, Weinheim