The Dynamics of Vortex Structures and States of Current in Plasma-Like Fluids and the Electrical Explosion of Conductors: 3. Comparison with Experiment

The present paper is a concluding part of the series [N.B. Volkov and A.M. Iskoldsky: 1; 2; [1], [2]]. Here on the basis of the results of the above papers the experiments on the electric explosion in conductors have been discussed and the mechanism of "hot" plasma spots formation which was repeatedly observed in the experiments on a plasma focus, z-pinches, vacuum sparks and electric explosion of microwires has been proposed. To realize this mechanism, the formation of sausage-type instabilities is not necessary. Moreover, the possibility of hot spots formation in a liquid metal (in the model under discussion, the plasma-like medium is assumed incompressible and the local kinetic transport coefficients - constant) has been shown. The latter is of great interest for understanding the mechanism of initiation and operation of vacuum arc cathode spots and also for the explanation to the phenomenon of explosive electron emission which is widely employed in applied physics.Comment: LaTeX, 10 PostScript figures, (E-mail: [email protected]). Accepted for publication in J.Phys.A: Math. and Gen. (1993-1994