Metal-nonmetal transition in dense hydrogen

Multiple shock-compression experiments have shown that a transition from semiconducting behavior to metallic-like conductivities occurs in dense hydrogen fluid at 1.4 Mbar and 3000 K. Various mechanisms such as band gap closure, percolation, self-doping, or thermally activated transport have been proposed to explain this nonmetal-to-metal transition. We study the transport of both delocalized and localized electrons within a partially ionized plasma model. It is found that hopping processes between H atoms play an important role in this nonmetal-to-metal transition.