Cold Dense Matter

Abstract

FOR his presidential address to the Section of Physics at the thirty-first Indian Science Congress, held at Delhi in January, Dr. D. S. Kothari took as his subject "Cold Dense Matter". Here the word 'cold' is used in a technical sense as meaning that any free electrons present constitute a degenerate gas—the actual temperatures can range from planetary temperatures to those of the interiors of white dwarf stars. Dr. Kothari's address has now been published, and it gives us a welcome summary of the main features of temperature- and pressure-ionization of matter at high and low temperatures and at high and low densities.