Melting point of graphite and liquid carbon (Concerning the paper 'Experimental investigation of the thermal properties of carbon at high temperatures and moderate pressures' by EI Asinovskii, A V Kirillin, and A V Kostanovskii)

Experimental data from various authors on the graphite melting point are reviewed and compared with the results obtained by E I Asinovskii, A V Kirillin, and A V Kostanovskii as presented in their paper 'Experimental investigation of the thermal properties of carbon at high temperatures and moderate pressures' (Usp. Fiz. Nauk. 172 931 (2002) [Phys. Usp. 45 869 (2002)]). It is shown that a considerable amount of available information about the heating of graphite by an electrical current or a laser pulse remained unaccounted for in that paper. A comparative analysis of the data indicates the 4800 - 4900-K range as the most reliable melting point estimate for graphite under pressures ranging from 0.1 to 3.0 kbar. (letters to the editors)