{"paper":{"title":"Stress-triggered atomic explosion of trapped hydrogen initiates crack nucleation","license":"http://arxiv.org/licenses/nonexclusive-distrib/1.0/","headline":"","cross_cats":[],"primary_cat":"cond-mat.mtrl-sci","authors_text":"Christian Linsmeier, Cong Li, GuangHong Lu, Liang Gao, Martin Balden, Peter Manz, Rudolf Neu, Thomas Schwarz-Selinger, Wolfgang Jacob","submitted_at":"2026-06-02T08:12:49Z","abstract_excerpt":"Hydrogen embrittlement (HE) has persisted for more than a century as one of the most intractable problems in materials science. The prevailing view1 that diffusive H governs embrittlement has fostered the widespread assumption that H trapping at crystal defects mitigates HE. Here we overturn this conventional paradigm. Using plasma/ion irradiation of tungsten, we decouple -- for the first time -- H-induced crack nucleation from subsequent cavity propagation, and reveal nucleation as a two-stage mechanochemical fracture instability enabled by trapped H in the absence of diffusive H. In the firs"},"claims":{"count":0,"items":[],"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"source":{"id":"2606.03298","kind":"arxiv","version":1},"verdict":{"id":null,"model_set":{},"created_at":null,"strongest_claim":"","one_line_summary":"","pipeline_version":null,"weakest_assumption":"","pith_extraction_headline":""},"integrity":{"clean":true,"summary":{"advisory":0,"critical":0,"by_detector":{},"informational":0},"endpoint":"/pith/2606.03298/integrity.json","findings":[],"available":true,"detectors_run":[],"snapshot_sha256":"c28c3603d3b5d939e8dc4c7e95fa8dfce3d595e45f758748cecf8e644a296938"},"references":{"count":0,"sample":[],"resolved_work":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57","internal_anchors":0},"formal_canon":{"evidence_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"author_claims":{"count":0,"strong_count":0,"snapshot_sha256":"258153158e38e3291e3d48162225fcdb2d5a3ed65a07baac614ab91432fd4f57"},"builder_version":"pith-number-builder-2026-05-17-v1"}