Molecular and Planetary Fluids at High Shock Pressures

Details Molecular and Planetary Fluids at High Shock Pressures Molecular and Planetary Fluids at High Shock Pressures

Jul 1997

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1997aps..shk..k101n&link_type=abstract

American Physical Society, Shock Compression Meeting, July 27 - August 1, 1997, abstract #K1.01

Physics

Condensed Matter

Scientific paper

Small molecules compose the reaction products of detonated explosives, the interiors of giant planets in this solar system and of giant planets now being discovered close to nearby stars, and the fuel for inertial confinement fusion (ICF). Pressures range from 10 GPa (100 kbar) in reacted explosives up to several 100 GPa in the initial phase of ICF and in giant planets. The corresponding temperatures are 1,000 to 10,000 K. These pressures and temperatures are achieved by shock compression using a two-stage light-gas gun. The kinetic energy of the projectile (0.5 MJ) is comparable to that of the proton/antiproton beams at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. With this much energy, shock compression produces novel states of condensed matter, analogous to the achievement of novel states of subnuclear matter. Experimental results will be reviewed for the major detonation products H_2O, N_2, and CO_2, as well as for the planetary fluids H_2, He, and synthetic Uranus. This systematic experimental study over the past 20 years culminated recently in the discovery from measurements of electrical conductivity of metallic hydrogen at 140 GPa, ninefold its initial liquid density, and 3000 K. Achievement of these conditions opens up a totally new regime for physics research. Metallization was observed because of the finite temperature achieved in shock compression, which lowered the metallization pressure relative to what is expected at 0 K. The pulsed 100 ns lifetime is necessary because it is long enough to achieve equilibrium and short enough to preclude undesirable effects such as loss of the high-temperature hydrogen sample by mass diffusion, chemical reaction of hydrogen with its surroundings, Rayleigh-Taylor interfacial instabilities, and release of pressure from the edges. The odyssey to achieve this Holy Grail will be described in terms of the long-term experimental study of dense molecular liquids. Implications for Jupiter will be described.

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