Abstract:
Sonoluminescence phenomena are highly complex, involving physical and chemical processes operating up to 12 orders of magnitude in energy, and involving emissions that depend delicately on some of the initial conditions. It is therefore not surprising that several competing theories exist to ``explain'' what experimentalists have observed. Some of these theories are speculative, some quasiquantitative, and some quantitative. None has been accepted universally. Therefore, since the special session on implosion acoustics will feature several theorists, the chairman issues the following challenge to the theorists: Define for the audience, in general, and for experimentalists, in particular, a specific experiment or set of experiments that will permit one to distinguish the author's theory from the others. Implicit in this challenge is the theorist's ability not only to describe what has already been observed, but also to make predictions for regions of the experimental parameter space not yet visited. The theorist's proposal to experimentalists should be outlined in a slide, and also in hard copy in advance of the conference so that the chair can circulate a compendium of proposals at the session.