Charged Thermodynamically Stable Heterophase Fluctuations in Compressed Mercury Vapour

Abstract

Abstract Measurements of the real part of the infrared dielectric constant of sub‐ and supercritical mercury vapour indicate that the interaction of the thermally generated charged particles with neutral atoms stabilize regions of higher than average density in the compressed high temperature vapour. A model calculation supports the hypothesis that under certain conditions of the vapour charges tend to stabilize dense liquid droplets which approach metallic conditions while the macroscopic system is still in the nonmetallic region.