Investigating Mechanisms of State Localization in Highly-Ionized Dense Plasmas

We present the first experimental observation of K${}_{\beta }$ emission from highly charged Mg ions at solid density, driven by intense x-rays from a free electron laser. The presence of K${}_{\beta }$ emission indicates the $n=3$ atomic shell is relocalized for high charge states, providing an upper constraint on the depression of the ionization potential. We explore the process of state relocalization in dense plasmas from first principles using finite-temperature density functional theory alongside a wavefunction localization metric, and find excellent agreement with experimental results.