On the Lifetime of Metastable Metallic Hydrogen

Abstract

The molecular phase of hydrogen converts to the atomic metallic phase at high pressures estimated usually as 300 - 500 GPa. We analyze the decay of metallic phase as the pressure is relieved below the transition one. The metallic state is expected to be in the metastable long-lived state down to about 10 - 20 GPa and decays instantly at the lower pressures. The pressure range of the long-lived metastable state is directly associated with an impossibility to produce a stable hydrogen molecule immersed into the electron liquid of high density. For lower pressures, the nucleation of an electron-free cavity with the energetically favorable hydrogen molecule inside cannot be suppressed with the low ambient pressure.

12 pages, 12 figures

References in corpus (4)

• A First-order Phase Transition to Metallic Hydrogen
• Dissociation of high-pressure solid molecular hydrogen: Quantum Monte Carlo and anharmonic vibrational study
• The Melting Line of Hydrogen at High Pressures
• Anharmonic effects in atomic hydrogen: superconductivity and lattice dynamical stability