Stable confinement and compression of dense thermonuclear plasmas in a detonation driven vortex

In plane detonation waves of high explosives~ pressures up to ~ 10¹² dyn/cm², corresponding to fluid velocities of ~ 10⁶ cm/sec~ can be reached by the employment of implosion and explosive lens techniques. If such high explosives, having the shape of logarithmic spirals, are arranged around the shaft of a hollow cylinder and simultaneously ignited from their periphery, an ultrastrong vortex collapsing towards the axis of the cylinder will be generated~ If thermonuclear material is placed in the center of this vortex and with a high current discharge passing through it, a stable high density pinch is formed~ The stable confinement time of this pinch is only determined by the lifetime of the vortex and confinement times well above the Lawson value seem to be possible. The amount of explosives needed is rather small and in the order of 100 grams. Alternatively, the collapsing vortex may be also formed by replacing the explosive with some inert material which is externally bombarded and driven by either a laser-relativistic electron-or ion-beam. A Taylor-stable collapsing vortex cavity can be also used to confine and compress laser- or electron- (or ion-) beam produced dense thermonuclear plasmas.