New suggestion concerning the origin of sonoluminescence

The dynamics of collapsing bubbles have been analyzed taking into account fluid compressibility. Shock waves are generated when the bubble, at a minimum radius, suddenly becomes almost incompressible. For impacts close to supersonic (or above), an intense pressure is briefly generated in a sphere which extends beyond the central bubble and which thus mostly contains surrounding fluid compacted to near its Van der Waals volume. This compacted fluid generates an intense emission of UV-visible light which suddenly disappears when the fluid expands from its Van der Waal volume. This situation occurs when the sphere of compacted fluid reaches a critical size of a few minimum bubble radii. Next, this pressure pulse radially propagates through the fluid, initially at highly supersonic velocities, which decay to the normal sound velocity as it simultaneously spreads out.