Scaling Law for the Onset of Solidification under Quasi-Isentropic Compression*

Quasi-isentropic compression enables one to study the solidification of metastable liquid states that are inaccessible through other experimental means. The onset of this nonequilibrium solidification is known to depend on the compression rate and material-specific factors, but this complex interdependence has not been well characterized. This talk will discuss recent studies in which we have used a combination of experiments, theory, and computational simulations to derive a general scaling law that quantifies this dependence. One of its applications is a novel means to elucidate melt temperatures at high pressures. We give suggestions on future studies to test and further refine the scaling law.