The fundamental causes of hydrocarbon autoignition have been debated for years, with proposals including the attainment of a critical gas temperature to release chemical radical species held captive due to degenerate chain branching at lower temperatures, or primary fuel consumption which allows chemical radical species to multiply rapidly. Both proposals describe subsequent reactions of those radical species to produce rapid autoignition. The present paper discusses conditions in which each of these processes is most important, concluding that both theories are correct in principle.
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