  If matter is suddenly put under a high pressure, for example a pressure of
100 Mb =10^14 dyn/cm^2, it can undergo a transformation into molecular excited
states, bound by inner electron shells, with keV potential well for the
electrons. If this happens, the electrons can under the emission of X-rays go
into the groundstate of the molecule formed under the high pressure. At a
pressure of the order ~ 10^14 dyn/cm^2, these molecules store in their excited
states an energy with an energy density of the order ~ 10^14 erg/cm^3, about
thousand times larger than for combustible chemicals under normal pressures.
Furthermore, with the much larger optical path length of keV photons compared
to the path length of eV photons, these superexplosives can reach at their
surface an energy flux density (c=3x10^10 cm/s) of the order (c/3)x10^14 =
10^24 erg/cm^2s^(-1) = 10^17 W/cm^2, large enough for the ignition of
thermonuclear reactions.
