Dynamic transition of supercritical hydrogen in gas giants: defining the boundary between interior and atmosphere

Abstract

Understanding physics of gas giants requires the knowledge about the behavior of hydrogen at extreme pressures and temperatures. Molecular hydrogen in these planets is supercritical, and has been considered as a physically homogeneous state where no differences can be made between a liquid and a gas and where all properties undergo no marked or distinct changes with pressure and temperature, the picture believed to hold below the dissociation and metallization transition. Here, we show that in Jupiter and Saturn, supercritical molecular hydrogen undergoes a dynamic transition around 10 GPa and 3000 K from the "rigid" liquid state to the "non-rigid" gas-like fluid state at the Frenkel line recently proposed, with accompanying qualitative changes of all major physical properties. The consequences of this finding are discussed, including a physically justified way to demarcate the interior and the atmosphere in gas giants.

References in corpus (6)

• Ab initio Equation of State data for hydrogen, helium, and water and the internal structure of Jupiter
• "Liquid-gas" transition in the supercritical region: Fundamental changes in the particle dynamics
• Thermodynamic behavior of supercritical matter
• Layered convection as the origin of Saturn's luminosity anomaly
• Building Giant-Planet Cores at a Planet Trap
• Evidence for structural crossover in the supercritical state

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Frenkel Line and Solubility Maximum in Supercritical Fluids
• Transition in the supercritical state of matter: experimental evidence
• The Frenkel Line: a direct experimental evidence for the new thermodynamic boundary
• Unified phonon-based approach to the thermodynamics of solid, liquid and gas states
• Persistent local order heterogeneity in the supercritical carbon dioxide
• The Physical Origin of the Venus Low Atmosphere Chemical Gradient
• The effect of pressure on hydrogen solubility in Zircaloy-4
• Dynamical Crossover in Supercritical Core-Softened Fluids