We derive that the compression for any single shock has an upper bound of 7. This is in the case of shocking from any initial state except gaseous densities with temperatures such that a significant fraction of the electrons are bound. For shocks in condensed material initially near ambient, we present a simple analytic estimate for the maximum compression as a function of ${\rho }_0$ (initial density), A (atomic weight), Z (atomic number), and $\Delta E$ (the sum of cohesion, dissociation, and total ionization energies).

• Received 16 September 1998

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.59.3727