The physics of antimatter induced fusion and thermonuclear explosions
Abstract
The possibility of using antihydrogen for igniting inertial confinement fusion pellets or triggering large-scale thermonuclear explosions is investigated. The number of antiproton annihilations required to start a thermonuclear burn wave in either DT or Li2DT is found to be about 1021/k2, where k is the compression factor of the fuel to be ignited. We conclude that the financial and energy investments needed to produce such amounts of antiprotons would confine applications of antimatter triggered thermonuclear devices to the military domain.
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