Speaker
Description
Knowing the transport properties of iron under realistic conditions present in the Earth’s core is essential for the geophysical modeling of Earth’s magnetic field generation. In addition to the effects of extreme pressures and temperatures, which cause dominant scattering due to thermal disorder, transport can also be affected by light elements and electron-electron interactions. Using a combination of molecular dynamics, density functional theory, and dynamical mean-field theory, we studied the impact of oxygen impurities on electronic correlations and their joint effect on transport in Earth's liquid outer core. Our findings reveal that oxygen inclusion moderately enhances electronic correlations. Both oxygen impurities and increased electronic correlations reduce thermal conductivity by ~20% each, hence playing an equally critical role in stabilizing the geodynamo.