arXiv:0802.3408physics.class-ph
Conjectured Metastable Super-Explosives formed under High Pressure for Thermonuclear Ignition
Early discovery. Linked by one identifiable commenter. This paper is outside the main ranking; a mention is not an endorsement.
Abstract
If matter is suddenly put under a high pressure, for example a pressure of 100 Mb =10^14 dyn/cm^2, it can undergo a transformation into molecular excited states, bound by inner electron shells, with keV potential well for the electrons. If this happens, the electrons can under the emission of X-rays go into the groundstate of the molecule formed under the high pressure. At a pressure of the order ~ 10^14 dyn/cm^2, these molecules store in their excited states an energy with an energy density of the order ~ 10^14 erg/cm^3, about thousand times larger than for combustible chemicals under normal pressures. Furthermore, with the much larger optical path length of keV photons compared to the path length of eV photons, these superexplosives can reach at their surface an energy flux density (c=3x10^10 cm/s) of the order (c/3)x10^14 = 10^24 erg/cm^2s^(-1) = 10^17 W/cm^2, large enough for the ignition of thermonuclear reactions.
This is a much more exciting study than it originally seems. They appear to claim that an observed state of sodium at high pressure has bonds between core electrons. If you recall from your chemistry class, bonds were only known to occur between valence electrons. This is an…
gene-hView on HNParent context