Dr. S. Capaccioli Prof. F. Pegoraro

Università di PisaScuola di Dottorato Galileo

GalileiSchool of Graduate Studies

Applied Physics

GALILEIAN SEMINARS:

"High Pressure Studies of

Matter"

An “ancestor” of pressure experiments: Firenze (1667)

Magalotti 1667,

“Saggi di naturali

Esperienze”

One of the question of Accademia del Cimento:Can the volume of liquids be reduced by an external

perturbation?Some experiments about the compression of water

Maxim: <<...PROVANDO E RIPROVANDO, si riesce talora di dar nel segno…>>

Pressing on: The legacy of Percy W. Bridgman (1882-1962) Paul McMillian, Nat.Mat.2005

1946, Nobel Prize for High Pressure Physics

Max Pressure 105 bar=10 GPa

Equation of state of materials, polymorphism,amorphization

Isopropyl alcohol

2011: 65th anniversary of Nobel Prize to Bridgman

Is it high pressure an obsolete subject, ready for retirement?

Not at all!

In the last decades several improvements: - P up to some Megabar=100-400 GPa- dramatic changes in physical and chemical properties of matter, up to to the formation of new classes of materials.

-Modification of structure and bonding with compression,- pressure-induced phase transitions and polymorphism, - tuning of vibrational dynamics, -new states of electronic and magnetic order,- etc.

High pressure Studies of Matter interesting for:Condensed Matter PhysicsChemistryAstrophysicsGeophysics

Ichimura, Phys Rep 1995

Seminars29/04/2010 - S. Scandolo (ICTP Trieste): “Ab-initio simulations of matter at extreme conditions: a window into the centers of planets”

14/05/2010 - F. Gorelli (CNR-IPCF, FI): “Inelastic X-ray scattering investigation on matter under high pressure”

21/05/2010 - M. Santoro (Lens, FI): “High pressure physics of simple systems”

27/05/2010 - D. Batani (Physics Dept., MI Bicocca): “Laser driven shock waves and measurements of equation of state of matter in the multi-megabar pressure range”

Room 131, building C, Department of Physics