With its many beautiful colour pictures, this book gives fascinating
insights into the unusual forms and behaviour of matter under extremely
high pressures and temperatures. These extreme states are generated,
among other things, by strong shock, detonation and electric explosion
waves, dense laser beams, electron and ion beams, hypersonic entry of
spacecraft into dense atmospheres of planets and in many other
situations characterized by extremely high pressures and temperatures.
Written by one of the world's foremost experts on the topic, this book
will inform and fascinate all scientists dealing with materials
properties and physics and also serve as an excellent introduction to
plasma-, shock-wave and high-energy-density physics for students and
newcomers seeking an overview. This second edition is thoroughly revised
and expanded, in particular with new material on high energy-density
physics, nuclear explosions and other nuclear transformation processes.