A simple thermodynamic system, having a single first‐order phase transformation, is examined as an elementary explosive. The energy needed to support self‐sustaining waves is stored in the volume change of the phase transformation. It is shown that this system can support the conventional viscous detonations as well as a set of unsteady eigenvalue detonations. Eigenvalue detonations have been discussed previously with respect to conventional explosives, but the very large reaction rates required to produce them are not thought to exist in nature. The occurrence of eigenvalue detonations in our system, for arbitrarily small reaction rates, is due entirely to the presence of an equilibrium coexistence surface connecting the two phases of the material, allowing mixed phase equilibrium states to be attained in a single shock process.
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