Shock Compression of Liquid Xenon to 130 GPa (1.3 Mbar)

New data are reported for liquid xenon shock compressed to a pressure of 130 GPa (1.3 Mbar), a molar volume of 13.7 ${\mathrm{cm}}^3$/mole, and a calculated temperature of 29 000 K. The data are consistent with the theory of Ross and McMahan, which indicates that xenon undergoes an insulator-to-metal transition at 9 ${\mathrm{cm}}^3$/mole at about 130 GPa or greater at 0 K. The minimum molar volume achieved in these experiments corresponds to a pressure of 60 GPa on the 0-K isotherm.