Shock wave structure in high-temperature dense plasma

The structure of a collisional shock wave front in a plasma is considered with allowance for a variety of dissipative processes due to the interaction of photons with plasma particles and to collisions between particles. Owing to the very great difference in the mean free paths of photons and charged particles, the structure problem as a whole breaks down into a series of sequential problems: (1) the problem of shock wave front structure in an ideal gas with emission of radiation, (2) the problem of shock wave front structure without emission of radiation but with allowance for electron conductivity and energy exchange in ion-electron collisions, and (3) the problem of isoelectron-thermal shock structure with allowance for ion viscosity. The basic physical properties involved in the solution of all these problems are described. The concluding part of the paper is devoted to an analysis of how plasma instabilities affect the production of the shock wave front structure and to the general question of the inerrelationships between collisionless and collisional shock waves in plasma. (author)