Electrons as a Shock Driver Gas

Abstract

The electric shock tube, below a transition pressure characteristic of the tube diameter and the gas under study, exhibits two clearly distinguishable luminous fronts having the apparent attributes of shocks. The first front is initiated too quickly to be ascribed to a temperature increase of the gas molecules, and seems therefore to depend directly on the electrons and their fields in some way. It is hypothesized that electron pressure is the primary source of this motion. This hypothesis is consonant with the extensive evidence at hand.