Supercritical phenomenon of hydrogen beyond the liquid-liquid phase transition

Using ab initio molecular dynamics simulation, we investigate the supercritical phenomenon associated with the liquid-liquid phase transition of hydrogen by studying the isothermal response functions, such as electric conductivity, molecular dissociation coefficient and isothermal compressibility, with respect to pressure. We find that, along each isotherm in the supercritical region, each of these response functions shows a maximum, the location of which is different for different response functions. As temperature decreases, the loci of these maxima asymptotically converge to a line of zero ordering field, known as the Widom line along which the magnitude of the response function maxima becomes larger and larger until it diverges as the critical point is approached. Thus, our study provides a possible way to locate the liquid-liquid critical point of hydrogen from the supercritical region at lower pressures. It also indicates that the supercritical phonomenon near the critical point of hydrogen is a rather general feature of second-order phase transition, it is not only true for classical systems with weak interactions but also true for highly condensed system with strong inter-atomic interactions.