Shock adiabat, phase diagram, and viscosity of mercury at a pressure up to 50 GPa

The results of measurements of shear viscosity of mercury under shock compression, obtained in [1]by the method of decay of small perturbations preassigned at the shock wave front, are considered in the light of new data on the phase diagram, isothermal compressibility, and equation of state for mercury in the high-pressure region. It is demonstrated that the measured value of viscosity eta = 0.8 kPa s at a shock compression pressure of 44 GPa (which differs from the initial state under normal conditions by a factor of 5 x 10(5)) corresponds to the transition of mercury under shock compression to the solid state..