Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 February 2011
The paper presents recent experimental results of optical, electrical and thermophysical properties of fluid metals in the vicinity of the critical point. Special attention will be paid to the metal-nonmetal transition which occurs at reduced densities of a fluid metal and the plasma phase transitions which are connected with ionization phenomena and many particle interactions in the dense vapor. The interrelation between the gas-liquid critical point phase transition and these electronic transitions and their effect on the critical phenomena will be discussed.