Applications of liquid state physics to the Earth's core

Abstract

By use of the modern theory of liquids and some guidance from the hard-sphere model of liquid structure, the following new results have been derived for application to the Earth's outer core. (1) dK/dP≃5-5.6P/K, where K is the incompressibility and P the pressure. This is valid for a high-pressure liquid near its melting point, provided that the pressure is derived primarily from a strongly repulsive pair potential φ. This result is consistent with seismic data, except possibly in the lowermost region of the outer core, and demonstrates the approximate universality of dK/dP proposed by Birch (1939) and Bullen (1949). (2) dlnT_M/dlnρ = (γC_V^(−1))/(C_V-3/2), where T_M is the melting point, ρ the density, γ the atomic thermodynamic Grüneisen parameter and C_V the atomic contribution to the specific heat in units of Boltzmann's constant per atom. This reduces to Lindemann's law for C -V = 3 and provides further support for the approximate validity of this law. (3) It follows that the "core paradox" of Higgins and Kennedy can only occur if y<2/3. However, it is shown that y<2/3⇔ʃ_0(∂g/∂T)p^r(d/dr)(r^2φ)dr>0, which cannot be achieved for any strongly repulsive pair potential φ and the corresponding pair distribution function g. It is concluded that y<2/3 and that the core paradox is almost certainly impossible for any conceivable core composition. Approximate calculations suggest that γ ∼ 1.3–1.5 in the core. Further work on the thermodynamics of the liquid core must await development of a physically realistic pair potential, since existing pair potentials may be unsatisfactory.

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