Exotic behavior of matter in the deep interiors of exoplanets

Gilbert Wilson Collins1, Marius A Millot1, Jon Eggert1, Ray Smith1, J. Ryan Rygg1, Amy Lazicki1, Federica Coppari1, Dayne Fratanduono1, Yuan Ping1, Damian Swift1, Peter M Celliers1, Richard G Kraus2, David Braun1, Amalia Fernandez Panella1, Sebastien Hamel3, TIlo Doeppner1, Andrea Kritcher1, Lorin Benedict1, Robert Rudd1, Raymond Jeanloz4, Cynthia Bolme5, Arianna E Gleason6, Paul Loubeyre7, S. Brygoo7, Malcolm McMahon8 and Suzanne J Ali9, (1)Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA, United States, (2)Lawrence Livermore National Lab, Reno, NV, United States, (3)LLNL, Livermore, United States, (4)University of California Berkeley, Earth and Planetary Science, Berkeley, CA, United States, (5)Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, United States, (6)SLAC, Menlo Park, United States, (7)CEA Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique DAM, Arpajon Cedex, France, (8)University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom, (9)University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, United States
Abstract:
Matter at several millions to billions of atmospheres (Mbar to Gbar) pressure is quite common throughout the universe, existing deep inside stars, sub-stellar objects (e.g., brown dwarfs), and planets. At these conditions recent experiments and theory suggest material properties are richer than previously expected, with a structural complexity and core electron chemistry distorting the standard models of extreme density matter. New capabilities now provide the first controlled laboratory-based experiments into this pressure range. Described here are new ramp compression experiments, revealing the mechanical and structural properties of solids to 50 million atmospheres, and shock compression experiments exploring the properties of dense fluids (equation of state and transport) from Mbar to near Gbar pressures. This paper will describe a few recent discoveries for such matter and the potential implications for current planetary models.

Prepared by LLNL under Contract DE-AC52-07NA27344

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