Shocking Revelations

Abstract

Sonoluminescence is the light emitted when a bubble of gas is trapped in a strong acoustic wave. Many theories have been offered to explain how the light is generated, but none is completely satisfactory. In their Perspective, Crum and Matula discuss these theories and new work reported in the same issue by Moss et al. on computer simulations of sonoluminescence. Using sophisticated computer codes developed for research of inertial confinement fusion, Moss et al. are able to explain the nature of the emitted light.