Knight Shift in Expanded Liquid Mercury

Abstract

We report the first magnetic data for an expanded liquid metal: the Knight shift in liquid Hg from the normal liquid density to less than 8 g/${\mathrm{cm}}^3$ at 1730 K and 1411 bar. An abrupt metal-nonmetal transition between 9 and 8 g/${\mathrm{cm}}^3$ is preceded by ranges of roughly linearly decreasing shift ($11\lesssim \rho \lesssim 13.6$ g/${\mathrm{cm}}^3$) and constant shift ($9\lesssim \rho \lesssim 11$ g/${\mathrm{cm}}^3$). The latter behavior fails to support current theories developed to explain electronic transport properties.