Implosion of a dense plasma by hypervelocity impact

It was previously shown (WINTERBERG, 1963, 1964; HARRISON, 1963) that it may be possible to ignite a small thermonuclear explosion of controllable size by the acceleration of macroscopic particles up to velocities of 108 cm/sec. One method which promises to reach high velocities is the acceleration of a superconductor by a travelling magnetic wave (WINTERBERG, 1966a; MAISONNIER, 1966; WINTERBERG, 1966b). For velocities which are required to ignite a thermonuclear reaction the accelerator would become at least 10 km long.