Numerical Evaluation of the Fermi-Dirac Integrals

Abstract

The readily available tables of the Fermi-Dirac integrals occurring in the degenerate electron equation of state have only modest precision. For some computational purposes it is desirable to have these functions available to near machine precision. We discuss the numerical techniques required to evaluate these functions, list selected results with-12 digit precision, and provide listings of Fortran subroutines to produce the tables and to provide accurate interpolation in the tables. Subject headings: equation of state-numerical methods