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    Multishock compression of dense deuterium-helium mixtures with varying helium abundance up to megabar pressures: Assessing the role of the nonideal mixing effect

    Lei Liu1,*, Zhi-Guo Li2,*, Qi-Feng Chen1,†, Yun-Jun Gu2,‡, Guo-Jun Li3, Zhao-Qi Wang4, Yang-shun Lan5, Zhi-Jun Shen6, and Hua-Zhong Guo7

    • *These authors contributed equally to this work.
    • †Contact author: chenqf01@gmail.com
    • ‡Contact author: guyunjun01@163.com

    Phys. Rev. B 112, 064111 – Published 25 August, 2025

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/69y2-p18x

    Abstract

    Hydrogen and helium constitute the main components of Jovian planets. Under the warm dense conditions inside gas giants, helium droplets settle deeper into the planet, forming a helium gradient. Consequently, thermodynamic properties, such as the equation of state (EoS) and sound speed, of hydrogen-helium mixtures with varying atomic helium mole fractions (xHe) under warm dense conditions are crucial for evaluating EoS models used in astrophysical modeling. To this end, we conducted multiple reverberation compression experiments on gaseous deuterium-helium (D2−He) mixtures with two distinct xHe of 0.14 and 0.60. The multishock pressures reached 110 GPa, and reshock temperatures reached 7620 K, conditions directly relevant to planetary interiors. The obtained EoS and sound velocity are used to evaluate H2−He EoS models constructed with or without taking into account nonideal mixing (NIM) effects. It is found that the state-of-the-art CMS19+HG23 EoS model, which incorporates NIM effects for arbitrary xHe values, can reasonably reproduce the measured pressure-density EoS for both mixtures but underestimates the shock temperature of the xHe=0.14. First-principles molecular dynamics (FPMD) simulations reveal that the NIM effect, arising from the strengthening effect of helium on deuterium molecule bonds, is more prominent for the mixture with xHe=0.60. Our findings impose new constraints on the EoS models applicable to the mixtures with arbitrary xHe, which are crucial for modeling the structure and evolution of gas giants.

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