Supercritical fluid of metal vapor plasmas, rare gases, and excitons

Abstract

Abstract We discuss vapor–liquid and dielectric–metal transitions and the metalization process via an exponential increase in conductivity under compression in metal vapors. We investigate the ‘cold ionization’ mechanism based on a proposed hypothesis on electron jellium existing as a seed of the conduction band in the gas phase. A number of physical models are proposed that combine methods to describe the interaction of atoms as cohesive and collective, caused by the presence of the electron jellium. The parameters of critical points and binodals are calculated for most metals in the Mendeleev periodic table, as well as for hydrogen and excitons. Useful relations between solid-state characteristics of metals and the parameters of critical points are established. Theoretical calculations are compared with experimental results for the equation of state of metal vapors and the conductivity at the critical points, on the binodal, and on near-critical isotherms, with the cold and thermal ionization processes taken into account. We propose the model of a ‘jump-like’ metalization of inert gases under compression, similar in nature to the Mott transition. We conclude that, in the vicinity of the critical point, metal vapors exhibit properties of metals due to the presence of the cold ionization process.