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Updated: Aug 20, 2026

A Method for Studying the Temperature Dependence of Dynamic Fracture and Fragmentation
Published on: June 28, 2015
Deflagration-to-detonation transition in inertial-confinement-fusion baseline targets
P Gauthier1, F Chaland, L Masse
1Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique--Direction des Applications Militaires Ile de France, Boîte Postale 12, 91680 Bruyères le Châtel, France. pascal.gauthier@cea.fr
Abstract:
By means of highly resolved one-dimensional hydrodynamics simulations, we provide an understanding of the burn process in inertial-confinement-fusion baseline targets. The cornerstone of the phenomenology of propagating burn in such laser-driven capsules is shown to be the transition from a slow unsteady reaction-diffusion regime of thermonuclear combustion (some sort of deflagration) to a fast detonative one. Remarkably, detonation initiation follows the slowing down of a shockless supersonic reaction wave driven by energy redeposition from the fusion products themselves. Such a route to detonation is specific to fusion plasmas.
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