Now, the obvious product of fusion is going to be Helium, but the temperatures in a hydrogen bomb explosion are WAYYY higher than the core of the sun!
I imagine that this means that there will be at least some production of heavier elements
Has anybody ever managed to detect the "Spectrum" of fusion products from a hydrogen bomb blast? If so, I wonder what the heaviest "synthesised" element detected actually is?
Einsteinium is one product of an H-Bomb blast--there are other actinides that were first detected in fallout from H-Bomb testing in the 1950's and early 1960's.
Keep in mind, that even though the temperatures and some pressures are close to conditions that may exist in the cores of some stars, the primary source of these elements is the nucleosynthesis that occurs in the turbulent shock boundries that occur in the cores of supernova explosions--here the conditions are ripe for creation of these heavy elements in quantity.
The cores of H-Bombs dissasemble themselves within a few nanoseconds of detonation--so no real significant nucleosynthesis can get going--this is why 'superheavy' elements can only just be detected...
Keep in mind that D-D and D-T fusion reactions are copious neutron generators: I suspect that the heavy TRUs detected following H-bomb tests were products of a series of neutron absorbtions that started with U238 or Pu239, also present in the device. The heaviest *fusion* products are not likely to go much beyond trace quantities of boron & carbon.
That is certainly the best explanation for any trans-uranics! Trans uranics from "First principles" would be pretty impressive even by H-bomb standards.
Googlenaut:
I may have misunderstood, but it is my understanding that the core of an exploding H-Bomb is about the hottest bang since the big one.
What is it, the Suns thermal OP/M^3 is about the same as a first gen Magnox reactor (or is it less). his "temperature" is "only" about 10 million K (you aint going to synthesise much at a mere 10 Mil!- yet it happens!)
Supernovas are hot, but are they "that" much hotter than H-bomb detonations? (I take your point about shock waves)
Do they dissasemble (DEAD! (sorry, couldnt resist it! )) that fast?? There are beautifull "Time lapse" photos taken of thermonuclear explosions made during the tests of the 50's. Could these have been made if the explosion front was advancing at the speed of light? I suspect that they advance somewhat slower and that! I suspect that the, erm, "Gas cored reactors" actually have quite a bit of (relative) time to opperate in. How long though I really dont know.
(I remember some years ago having a somewhat drunken conversation with my younger brother about this. We concluded that fusion devices were "Very clever!" and actually involved reaction dynamics that continued to operate well beyond the point that all the componants had been plasmerised (Is that a word?) )
The fluid dynamics and radiation effects of H-Bomb explosions are pretty intense (here, calculation wise.) Mathematically very rigourous to simulate...
While the core temperatures of thermonuclear detonations are in the hundreds of millions of degrees; pressures in the hundreds of Gigabars; electromagnetic radiation energy density approaching the mass density of lead--the conditions in near the collapsing core of a supernova explosion are almost beyond imagination: temperatures in the billions of degrees; pressures so high (at the very core) that the volumetric energy density of the pressure alone is thousands or millions of time the density of ordinary matter; electromangnetic energy densities again thousands or even millions of times the density of ordinary matter. And while an H-Bomb will dissassemlbe itself within a few nano seconds, the energetics involved with the collapse of the core of a giant star undergoing supernova explosion may persist for tens or even hundreds of seconds--plenty of time for nucleosynthesis to occur. And besides, the environement in the core of a neutron star is so extreme, nucleosynthesis of heavy elements may end up momentarily being the most efficient cooling mechanism!
The blast front of an H-bomb explosion only moves at 2-5 km per second, but when fusion burning is occuring, the shockwave may approach a significant fraction of the speed of light...
Normally what we think of as the actual 'fireball' from a thermonuclear blast is in reality mostly air heated to incandescence by the x-ray pulse emitted by the much smaller and much hotter 'fireball' which is the vaporized casing, tamper and fission and fusion products--the latter two only making up between 5-20% of the whole weapon's mass...
So in this sense, by the time we see a flash of light, the fusion reactions are all done...
)) that fast?? There are beautifull "Time lapse" photos taken of thermonuclear explosions made during the tests of the 50's. Could these have been made if the explosion front was advancing at the speed of light? I suspect that they advance somewhat slower and that! I suspect that the, erm, "Gas cored reactors" actually have quite a bit of (relative) time to opperate in. How long though I really dont know.
