Monday, 5 November 2018

condensed matter - How likely is it that metallic hydrogen is metastable at atmospheric pressure?


I just watched a news report about the laboratory production of [solid] metallic hydrogen for the first time. I was surprised to find the researchers predicting that, once produced, it might remain solid at atmospheric pressure. The video says they will test this in a couple of weeks, so I guess we'll know then, but in the mean time I'm curious about how plausible this is.


As noted in the answer to a previous question it seems this prediction was made in the 1970s, and it seems that people have speculated since then about possible applications if it is the case. (For example, it would be a revolutionary rocket fuel.) However, it isn't clear to me whether that early result has been backed up or made less plausible by more recent calculations. Does anyone know the current state of the art in terms of predictions about the stability of metallic hydrogen at low pressures?





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