Sound waves and shock waves in high-density deuterium

The possibility of compressing the cryogenic hollow pellet of inertial confinement nuclear fusion with multiple adiabatic shock waves is discussed, on the basis of the estimation of the properties of a high-density deuterium plasma (1024-1027 cm-3, 10-1-104 eV), such as the velocity and the attenuation constant of the adiabatic sound wave, the width of the shock wave, and the surface tension. It is found that in the course of compression the wavelength of the adiabatic sound wave and the width of the weak shock wave sometimes become comparable to or exceed the fuel shell width of the pellet, and that the surface tension is negative. These results show that it is rather difficult to compress stably the hollow pellet with successive weak shock waves. (author)