Experimental Pathways for Detecting Double Superionicity in Planetary Ices

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: de Villa, Kyla, Gonzalez-Cataldo, Felipe, Militzer, Burkhard
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author de Villa, Kyla
Gonzalez-Cataldo, Felipe
Militzer, Burkhard
author_facet de Villa, Kyla
Gonzalez-Cataldo, Felipe
Militzer, Burkhard
contents The ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune are assumed to contain large amounts of planetary ices such as water, methane, and ammonia. The properties of mixtures of such ices at the extreme pressures and temperatures of planetary interiors are not yet well understood. Ab initio computer simulations predicted that a number of ices exhibit a hydrogen superionic state and a doubly superionic state [DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42958-0]. Since the latter state has not yet been generated with experiments, we outline here two possible pathways for reaching and detecting such a state with dynamic compression experiments. We suggest X-ray diffraction as the principal tool for detecting when the material becomes doubly superionic and the sublattice of one of the heavy nuclei melts. That would require a temperature of $\sim$3500 K and pressures greater than $\sim$200 GPa for H$_3$NO$_4$, which we use as an example material here. Such conditions can be reached with experiments that employ an initial shock that is followed by a ramp compression wave. Alternatively, one may use triple-shock compression because a single shock does not yield sufficiently high densities.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_17499
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Experimental Pathways for Detecting Double Superionicity in Planetary Ices
de Villa, Kyla
Gonzalez-Cataldo, Felipe
Militzer, Burkhard
Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Materials Science
The ice giant planets Uranus and Neptune are assumed to contain large amounts of planetary ices such as water, methane, and ammonia. The properties of mixtures of such ices at the extreme pressures and temperatures of planetary interiors are not yet well understood. Ab initio computer simulations predicted that a number of ices exhibit a hydrogen superionic state and a doubly superionic state [DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42958-0]. Since the latter state has not yet been generated with experiments, we outline here two possible pathways for reaching and detecting such a state with dynamic compression experiments. We suggest X-ray diffraction as the principal tool for detecting when the material becomes doubly superionic and the sublattice of one of the heavy nuclei melts. That would require a temperature of $\sim$3500 K and pressures greater than $\sim$200 GPa for H$_3$NO$_4$, which we use as an example material here. Such conditions can be reached with experiments that employ an initial shock that is followed by a ramp compression wave. Alternatively, one may use triple-shock compression because a single shock does not yield sufficiently high densities.
title Experimental Pathways for Detecting Double Superionicity in Planetary Ices
topic Earth and Planetary Astrophysics
Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics
Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.17499