  Electric field induced nucleation is introduced as a possible mechanism to
realize a metallic phase of hydrogen. Analytical expressions are derived for
the nucleation probabilities of both thermal and quantum nucleation in terms of
material parameters, temperature, and the applied field. Our results show that
the insulator-metal transition can be driven by an electric field within a
reasonable temperature range and at much lower pressures than the current
paradigm of P > 400 GPa. Both static and oscillating fields are considered and
practical implementations are discussed.
