Free electron in compressed inert gases

The behavior of excess and intrinsic free electrons inside compressed inert gases is described as a function of pressure by using a pairwise approximation for the electron interaction with atomic surroundings. The change of sign from negative to positive for the xenon atom electric potential inside condensed xenon is predicted to occur at a pressure around 3 GPa, preventing slow electron embedding into solid xenon from the gas phase at higher pressure. To overcome this difficulty, the electrons should be injected into a solid sample just before its pulsed shock loading. The ionization of xenon by pressure and its further metallization are described by decreasing the forbidden gap at the expense of increasing the xenon ground electronic term and simultaneous splitting of the upper ionized electronic state. A good coincidence between the calculated and measured pressure of the dielectric-metal transition in xenon is demonstrated. The text was submitted by the authors in English.