Sandro Scandolo and Erio Tosatti of ICTP's Condensed Matter and Statistical Physics section are among a group of international scientists who have published a paper that appears in this week's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The paper, titled "High-pressure polymeric phases of carbon dioxide", provides insight into the structural transformations of solid carbon dioxide under high pressure.

Carbon dioxide transforms at high pressure from the molecular phase into a hard solid that may have important technological applications. The paper describes the microscopic mechanisms of the transformation and provides hints about the possible crystal structure of the hard phase.