The Division of Computational Physics Focus Topic at the APS March Meeting 2017 will be held March 13-17, 2017 in New Orleans, Louisiana.

High-pressure often leads to unusual states of matter, expressed as novel structures, unexpected metal-insulator transitions, superconductivity etc. Recently, a series of computational and experimental studies show that materials can undergo changes at a fundamental level and form unusual chemical compounds. For example, electrons may detach from all nuclei and occupy interstitial sites, forming electrides; also what might have been thought as core levels or unfilled orbitals might be involved in forming covalent and ionic bonds under pressure. Characteristic of progress in this area is the close interaction of theory and experiment. Although some compounds predicted with unusual stoichiometry have recently been attained by static high-pressure experiments, many novel compounds are still awaiting experimental discovery.

The Focus Topic will open the opportunity to concurrently present and discuss the recent new chemistry and physics emerging under high pressure. It will include but not be limited to the following topics: (1) synthesis and prediction of novel compounds with atypical or unusual compositions under pressure; (2) the observation and prediction of high pressure electrides and the mechanism of their formation; (3) the role of inner shell and outer shell orbitals and electrons in high pressure chemistry;  (4) the reactivity of noble gas elements under pressure; (5) emerging physics in new compounds such as the topological insulating state and superconductivity.