Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory | 23 June 2010
Evidence for a first-order liquid-liquid transition in high-pressure hydrogen from ab initio simulationsHydrogen is the most abundant element in the universe and is a major component of giant planets such as Jupiter and Saturn.
But not much is known about what happens to this abundant element under high-pressure conditions when it transforms from one state to another.
Using quantum simulations, scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of L’Aquia in Italy were able to uncover these phase transitions in the laboratory similar to how they would occur in the centers of giant planets.
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They discovered a first order phase transition, a discontinuity, in liquid hydrogen between a molecular state with low conductivity and a highly conductive atomic state. The critical point of the transition occurs at high temperatures, near 3100 degrees Fahrenheit and more than 1 million atmospheres of pressure.
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There is a liquid-liquid-solid multiphase coexistence point in the hydrogen phase diagram that corresponds to the intersection of the liquid-liquid phase transition, according to a paper appearing online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 21 June 2010, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1007309107
