Ab initio electronic conductivity of Fe-bearing post-perovskite
Abstract
The electrical conductivity of high-pressure silicates profoundly influences the interior dynamics of rocky planets. Employing the Kubo-Greenwood formalism, we perform ab initio calculations of electronic conductivity in Fe-bearing post-perovskite under super-Earth mantle conditions, up to 4000 K and 500 GPa. Electronic structures are obtained via many-body perturbation theory, incorporating dynamical screening and correlations among localized Fe-3d orbitals. In contrast to (Fe,Mg)O, for which metallization has been reported at comparable conditions, our results indicate that post-perovskite with Earth-like Fe contents is unlikely to metallize in super-Earth mantles via band-gap closure, yielding negligible low-frequency conductivity. Any substantial conductivity would require non-electronic mechanisms, such as thermally activated small-polaron hopping, which fall beyond the scope of band conduction.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2602.23634,
title = {Ab initio electronic conductivity of Fe-bearing post-perovskite},
author = {Yihang Peng and Yupei Zhang and Shuai Zhang and Chenxing Luo and Donghao Zheng and Nelson Naveas and Xifan Wu and Jie Deng},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2602.23634},
year = {2026}
}