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We have electric conductivity in metal because the regularity and interaction in a crystal allow for the creation of conduction bands. We should not find these bands in mercury so how could liquid mercury be an conductor? How can we describe the electrical conductivty of mercury.

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    why wouldn't any metal be conductive in its liquid state? – MaxW Mar 06 '21 at 06:41
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    Indeed, they all are. Regularity is simply not a factor. – Ivan Neretin Mar 06 '21 at 07:44
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    You just can't us Bloch functions since there is no repeating units. That does not mean that there are not widely shared mobile electrons, we just can't give a nice $E$ vs $k$ picture for their energy and momentum. – Jon Custer Mar 07 '21 at 22:47

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