Seminar of the Institute for Condensed Matter Physics

Iron is perhaps one of the most important chemical elements in our Technological society. Quite understandably, significant effort has been put into investigating its properties. May be even more important is the understanding of physics of iron under extreme pressure and temperature conditions of the Earth's interior. This is because the innermost part of the Earth consists of liquid and co-existing solid iron. Therefore, the understanding how the planet we are living on functions, strongly depends on understanding of physics of iron at high P and T. Since the experiment under extreme conditions is difficult if possible at all, studies of iron led to a number of controversies. This is exactly where condensed matter theory came into the picture, allowing a judgement for the possible reasons of controversies and suggesting their solutions. The studies of iron will be taken in the historical perspective in the last 20 years. I will demonstrate how, relying on density functional theory and molecular dynamics simulations, we have been able to provide critically important data on iron phase diagram. The presentation will include a few methodological issues on calculating a phase diagram from first principles.