A theoretical analysis of the shock compression experiments of the liquid hydrogen isotopes and a prediction of their metallic transition

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Shock compression experiments in which the liquid hydrogen isotopes were compressed as much as sevenfold in density to pressures of the order of 900 kbar are analyzed to obtain an effective intermolecular potential. Because temperatures as high as 7000°K are generated during the shock process, this potential is most accurate in the highly repulsive, small separation region, and is thereby well suited to calculate the properties of dense molecular hydrogen in the region of the metallic transition. By equating the Gibbs free energies of the metal and molecular phases, we calculate the pressure and density of the metallic transition. Unfortunately, the large experimental error and the sensitivity of the transition to the free energy allows us only to estimate a lower bound of 2 to 3 Mbar for the transition pressures.