Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) is a subject that has been studied for decades, because of its potential for clean energy generation. Although thermonuclear fusion has been achieved, the energy out has always been considerably less than the energy in, so high energy gain with a burning thermonuclear plasma is still some way off. A multitude of new science has come from the ICF programme that is relevant outside the field (typically in astrophysics). What we look at in this text is what new science can come from the much more extreme conditions that would be created in the laboratory if a burning ICF plasma could be created -- in terms of energy density the most extreme macroscopic environment ever created. We show that this could impact science from particle physics through astrophysics and on to cosmology. We also believe that the experiments that we propose here are only a small part of the science that will be opened up when a burning thermonuclear plasma is created in the laboratory.

惯性约束聚变 (ICF) 是一个已经研究了几十年的主题，因为它具有产生清洁能源的潜力。尽管已经实现了热核聚变，但输出的能量总是远小于输入的能量，因此燃烧热核等离子体的高能量增益仍有一段距离。大量新科学来自与该领域之外（通常是天体物理学）相关的 ICF 计划。我们在本文中看到的是，如果可以产生燃烧的 ICF 等离子体，实验室中将产生的更极端的条件会带来什么新科学——就能量密度而言，这是有史以来最极端的宏观环境。我们表明，这可能会影响从粒子物理学到天体物理学再到宇宙学的科学。