Processes of thermal and cold ionization of metal vapors in the vicinity of the critical point of the vapor–liquid phase transition

The effects of thermal and cold ionization in the near-critical region of metal vapors are taken into account jointly. The comparison with the results of the experiment and numerical simulation can serve as confirmation of the hypothesis put forward about the existence of electron jellium in the gas-plasma region and its coexistence with thermally ionized electrons. It is concluded that saturated metal vapors are most probably a gaseous metal with a sufficiently high conductivity.