Probing iron in Earth's core with molecular-spin dynamics.

Nikolov, Svetoslav; Ramakrishna, Kushal; Rohskopf, Andrew; Lokamani, Mani; Tranchida, Julien; Carpenter, John; Cangi, Attila; Wood, Mitchell A · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2024

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Dynamic compression of iron to Earth-core conditions is one of the few ways to gather important elastic and transport properties needed to uncover key mechanisms surrounding the geodynamo effect. Herein, a machine-learned ab initio derived molecular-spin dynamics (MSD) methodology with explicit treatment for longitudinal spin-fluctuations is utilized to probe the dynamic phase-diagram of iron. This framework uniquely enables an accurate resolution of the phase-transition kinetics and Earth-core elastic properties, as highlighted by compressional wave velocity and adiabatic bulk moduli measurements. In addition, a unique coupling of MSD with time-dependent density functional theory enables gauging electronic transport properties, critically important for resolving geodynamo dynamics.