Tight squeeze turns hydrogen metallic

摘要

A Major problem in physics may have just been solved. For the first time, metallic hydrogen has been created by squeezing it at pressures greater than exist at the centre of the Earth. Isaac Silvera and Ranga Dias at Harvard University used the flattened tips of two synthetic diamonds to squeeze solid hydrogen at low temperatures, until the atoms were so packed that they started to share electrons. The shared cloud of electrons indicated a transition into a metallic state, making the hydrogen shiny and electrically conductive.