OPTICAL RADIATION FROM EXPLOSIVELY-SHOCKED NOBLE GASES.

Abstract : The light emitted by explosion-compressed argon has been studied experimentally and theoretically. The major theoretical result is that blackbody radiation is emitted at all times when observation is practical. Radiation temperatures have been calculated for krypton and xenon as well as for argon. The difficulties in determining the spectrum experimentally and the concomitant limitations of the data are discussed. The theoretical and experimental results agree within experimental errors. (Author)