It was demonstrated that the wide range of magnitudes observed, for the slopes of the melting curves at zero pressure, for some transition metals with incomplete d-shells were consistent with their elastic moduli data. The near-zero slopes observed for W and Mo were not anomalous, as had been suggested. An empirical non-linear relationship between the slope and the compressibility was proposed. By examining a model for the vacancy formation energy in these metals, it was shown that the slopes could also be related to the slopes of the melting curves.

On the Pressure Dependence of the Melting Temperature and the Monovacancy Formation Energy in Transition Metals. C.C.Matthai, N.H.March: Philosophical Magazine Letters, 2007, 87[7], 475-82