Electric Explosion of Thin Wires (a Paradigm Shift)

Over the many decades of studying the electric explosion of thin wires (EEW), researchers have developed and accepted certain notions about this process. Despite the lack of proof behind certain established assertions and, sometimes, their contradiction with the results of recent experiments, they are still widely used to describe and interpret new data. In the first place, this concerns the concept that the EEW is a fast evaporation of metal as a result of the dissipation of Joule energy inside it. Another fundamental notion that is used during the analysis of the experimental results and in model calculations is the uniform distribution of matter along the cross section of the wire core during the explosion. To date, the nature and mechanism of the appearance of strata, i.e., the periodicity observed in many images of the EEW, remain unexplained. Using the traditional notions of the EEW, even in experiments conducted at a high level, does not allow one to correctly interpret the obtained results and, as a whole, does not facilitate the progress in understanding the complicated physics of the process of wire explosion. Therefore, the traditional concepts of the EEW have long required a revision. This work summarizes the results of modern research in this area and considers its relation to the previous works. It also proposes new approaches to the studies of the EEW dynamics and to the understanding of the processes of energy transformation in matter during its rapid heating by the electric current.