Thermodynamic properties of the actinide metals Th and U: A first-principles study

Utilizing a combination of first-principles electronic structure calculation and the recently developed meanfield potential approach, we have calculated the static 300 K equation-of-state, the dynamic Hugoniot equation-of-state, and the major thermodynamic properties along the principal Hugoniot for actinide metals Th and U. We demonstrate that the modern first-principles technique can describe most of the thermodynamic quantities within the experimental error bars even for the two heaviest 5f metals at pressures up to 1000 GPa and temperatures up to ∼74 000 K for Th and ∼42 000 K for U.