Electron-density separations in nonideal plasmas: Structure of Thomas-Fermi-like bound states and the Mott transition

Starting from a general free energy functional, the chemical picture for nonideal plasmas arises from a certain separation of the electron density. Defining a bound state and its electrostatically screening plasma environment as a subsystem, a simple theory for plasma-correspondent bound state structure can be formulated. This provides the possibility to derive adjustable parameters for the interactions in the chemical picture. The Mott transition corresponds to the violation of the normalization condition due to plasma influences.