Atomic Physics For Hot Plasmas

Presents a comprehensive treatise on the field of atomic physics in hot plasmas, which can be used both for tutorial and professional purposes, and which summarizes the central subjects in the field.

This is a text/software package offering undergraduates hands-on learning of a computer programming language through problem solving and examples worked on computer.

The aim of this book is to provide the reader with a coherent and updated comprehensive treatise that covers the central subjects of the field. The style and content is suitable both for students and researchers. Highlights of the book include (among many others) the Ion-Sphere model, statistical models, Average-Atom model, emission spectrum, unresolved transition arrays, supertransition arrays, radiation transport, escape factors and x-ray lasers.

This book is devoted to the calculation of hot-plasma properties which generally requires a huge number of atomic data. It is the first book that combines information on the details of the basic atomic physics and its application to atomic spectroscopy with the use of the relevant statistical approaches. Information like energy levels, radiative rates, collisional and radiative cross-sections, etc., must be included in equilibrium or non-equilibrium models in order to describe both the atomic-population kinetics and the radiative properties. From the very large number of levels and transitions involved in complex ions, some statistical (global) properties emerge. The book presents a coherent set of concepts and compact formulas suitable for tractable and accurate calculations. The topics addressed are: radiative emission and absorption, and a dozen of other collisional and radiative processes; transition arrays between level ensembles (configurations, superconfigurations); effective temperatures of configurations, superconfigurations, and ions; charge-state distributions; radiative power losses and opacity. There are many numerical examples and comparisons with experiment presented throughout the book. The plasma properties described in this book are especially relevant to large nuclear fusion facilities such as the NIF (California) and the ITER (France), and to astrophysics. Methods relevant to the central-field configurational model are described in detail in the appendices: tensor-operator techniques, second-quantization formalism, statistical distribution moments, and the algebra of partition functions. Some extra tools are propensity laws, correlations, and fractals. These methods are applied to the analytical derivation of many properties, specially the global ones, through which the complexity is much reduced. The book is intended for graduate-level students, and for physicists working in the field.

Plasma Atomic Physics provides an overview of the elementary processes within atoms and ions in plasmas, and introduces readers to the language of atomic spectra and light emission, allowing them to explore the various and fascinating radiative properties of matter. The book familiarizes readers with the complex quantum-mechanical descriptions of electromagnetic and collisional processes, while also developing a number of effective qualitative models that will allow them to obtain adequately comprehensive descriptions of collisional-radiative processes in dense plasmas, dielectronic satellite emissions and autoionizing states, hollow ion X-ray emissions, polarized atoms and ions, hot electrons, charge exchange, atomic population kinetics, and radiation transport. Numerous applications to plasma spectroscopy and experimental data are presented, which concern magnetic confinement fusion, inertial fusion, laser-produced plasmas, and X-ray free-electron lasers’ interaction with matter. Particular highlights include the development of quantum kinetics to a level surpassing the almost exclusively used quasi-classical approach in atomic population kinetics, the introduction of the recently developed Quantum-F-Matrix-Theory (QFMT) to study the impact of plasma microfields on atomic populations, and the Enrico Fermi equivalent photon method to develop the “Plasma Atom”, where the response properties and oscillator strength distribution are represented with the help of a local plasma frequency of the atomic electron density. Based on courses held by the authors, this material will assist students and scientists studying the complex processes within atoms and ions in different kinds of plasmas by developing relatively simple but highly effective models. Considerable attention is paid to a number of qualitative models that deliver physical transparency, while extensive tables and formulas promote the practical and useful application of complex theories and provide effective tools for non-specialist readers.

Applied Atomic Collision Physics, Volume 2: Plasmas covers topics on magnetically confined plasmas. The book starts by providing the history of fusion research and describing the various approaches in both magnetically and inertially confined plasmas. The text then gives a general discussion of the basic concepts and properties in confinement and heating of a plasma. The theory of atomic collisions that result in excited quantum states, particularly highly ionized impurity atoms; and diverse diagnostic topics such as emission spectra, laser scattering, electron cyclotron emission, particle beams, and bremsstrahlung are also considered. The book further tackles heating of plasma by energetic particles; the boundary or edge plasma and particle-surface interactions; and the role of atomic physics in hot dense plasmas. Physicists and people involved in plasma and fusion energy studies will find the book invaluable.

This book is an outgrowth of courses in plasma physics which I have taught at Kiel University for many years. During this time I have tried to convince my students that plasmas as different as gas dicharges, fusion plasmas and space plasmas can be described in a uni ed way by simple models. The challenge in teaching plasma physics is its apparent complexity. The wealth of plasma phenomena found in so diverse elds makes it quite different from atomic physics, where atomic structure, spectral lines and chemical binding can all be derived from a single equation—the Schrödinger equation. I positively accept the variety of plasmas and refrain from subdividing plasma physics into the traditional, but arti cially separated elds, of hot, cold and space plasmas. This is why I like to confront my students, and the readers of this book, with examples from so many elds. By this approach, I believe, they will be able to become discoverers who can see the commonality between a falling apple and planetary motion. As an experimentalist, I am convinced that plasma physics can be best understood from a bottom-up approach with many illustrating examples that give the students con dence in their understanding of plasma processes. The theoretical framework of plasma physics can then be introduced in several steps of re nement. In the end, the student (or reader) will see that there is something like the Schrödinger equation, namely the Vlasov-Maxwell model of plasmas, from which nearly all phenomena in collisionless plasmas can be derived.

Nobel Symposium No. 30 on the Physics of the Hot Plasma in the Magnetosphere was held at Kiruna Geophysical Institute, Kiruna, Sweden from April 2-4, 1975. Some 40 leading experts from America, USSR, and Western Europe attended the Symposium. The purpose of the meeting was to review and discuss the physics of the hot plasma in the magnetosphere with special empha sis on unsolved problems on which attention needs to be focused during the International Magnetospheric Study 1976-1978. The field is very extensive and complete coverage of all aspects was of course not possible. The radiation belts proper were, for instance, not covered. There were no formal contributed papers, but much time was devoted to discussion. These proceedings contain all review papers except the one by R.Z. Sagdeev. They are ordered by subject, starting, after the introductory lecture, with the problem of how the plasma enters the magnetosphere and ending with the question of the interaction with the ionosphere. The Organizing Committee for the symposium was composed of the following Swedish scientists: E.-A. Brunberg, C.G. Fa1thammar, I. Hu1then, B. Hu1tqvist (chairman), L. Stenf10, and H. Wilhe1msson. The Symposium was financed by the Nobel Foundation through grants from the Tercentenary Foundation of the Bank of Sweden, by the Swedish Board for Space Activities, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which is gratefully acknowledged. Appreciated contributions "in natura" were also received from the town of Kiruna and the LKAB Company.