Has Metallic Hydrogen Been Made in a Diamond Anvil Cell?

Abstract

Eremets and Troyan recently reported a transition of molecular hydrogen to metallic hydrogen (MH) at a pressure of ~270 GPa and 300 K. The quest for MH has been going on since 1935 when Wigner and Huntington predicted solid H2 at 0 K would transition to solid H with an associated insulator-metal transition at high pressure. Since then, observation of MH in solid hydrogen has yet to be confirmed. Because of its scientific importance we have considered their experimental evidence to determine if their claim is justified. Based on our analysis there is no evidence for MH in their experiments.

8 pages, 1 figure

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