Deflagration-to-detonation transition in inertial-confinement-fusion baseline targets

By means of highly resolved one-dimensional hydrodynamics simulations, we provide an understanding of the burn process in inertial-confinement-fusion baseline targets. The cornerstone of the phenomenology of propagating burn in such laser-driven capsules is shown to be the transition from a slow unsteady reaction-diffusion regime of thermonuclear combustion (some sort of deflagration) to a fast detonative one. Remarkably, detonation initiation follows the slowing down of a shockless supersonic reaction wave driven by energy redeposition from the fusion products themselves. Such a route to detonation is specific to fusion plasmas.