Three points concerning extreme compressions in shocked deuterium

Abstract

Those models, that show agreement with the Hugoniot data of Da Silva et al., over a large pressure range, are fit to the reflected wave experiment of Holmes et al. In these works it is assumed that the reflected wave is a single stable shock, in contradiction to the data. We change the picture to allow for multiwave-reflected waves and show that such is completely consistent with all data. The reflected wave is more accurately approximated by an adiabat than a Hugoniot and the fitted models should be adjusted to account for this difference. This is our first point. We then review from previous work the relevant physics that determines the maximum compression along a Hugoniot. This is our second point. Finally, with this understanding we are able to determine from experimental data on other molecular systems, such as nitrogen and benzene, whether the large compressions seen in the laser Hugoniot data for deuterium are reasonable. They are not.