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If you strip the valence electrons apart with a very short intense electromagnetic field the remaining core explodes in a so called coulomb explosion.

But experiments have shown that under certain cases fusion does occur in a manner, that the ions are accelerated and you get a non maxwellian velocity distribution. Can you explain the process a little bit more and show how it is possible to overcome the nuclear repulsion for fusion?

The wikipedia page to this topic is a little bit missleading, so I give you a paper Efficient fusion neutron generation from heteronuclear clusters in intense femtosecond laser fields that this kind of fusion is indeed possible and experimentally proven.

Alex1167623
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Both the abstracts that you point to in the comments say the same thing

Recent experiments on the interaction of intense, ultrafast pulses with large van der Waals bonded clusters have shown that these clusters can explode with sufficient kinetic energy to drive nuclear fusion.

In other words, the cluster comes apart energetically, and the bits flying off have enough kinetic energy to initiate fusion when they hit a stationary target nearby (presumably other clusters in the same substrate).

That is: this is not a direct fusion process, but a new way to get the high velocities needed for fusion.

Very interesting.

dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
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The Coulomb explosion is secondary and doesn't cause fusion at all! The extraordinary flux of (visible light or IR) photons induce a very particular situation where Coulombs law is locally reversed; electrons are repelled from the nuclei (and thrown away with great velocity) and the nuclei (at least some of them) are drawn to one another. Same thing happens in a H-bomb, only then it's soft X-rays that does the trick.

Then, after the fusion reactions have actually occurred, there is a excess of positive charge in a small spot, and the whole shebang 'explodes'. I think this can be proven by exact measurements of the timing of the primary gamma rays from the fusion events.

N.B., if deuterated plastic is used, the carbon nuclei do not participate in the nuclear reactions simply because there isn't time to completely ionize them. The time dilation may also be insufficiently strong to induce fusion in them.

Ludvig Mörtberg
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