The ability to understand and predict the response of matter at extreme conditions requires knowledge of a material’s equation-of-state, including the location of phase boundaries, transition kinetics, and the evolution of material strength.  Cerium is a material with a complex phase diagram that continues to attract significant scientific interest.  A recent publication, Dynamic experiments to study the α−ϵ phase transition in cerium (B. J. Jensen and F. J. Cherne from LANL and N. Velisavljevic, HPCAT/LLNL) J. Appl. Phys. 127, 095901 (2020); doi: 10.1063/1.5142508, highlights the importance of applying various static high pressure techniques, along with dynamic compression platforms and high end modeling, in order to resolve material complexity at extreme pressure-temperature conditions.

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