Modeling of free electronic state density in hydrogenic plasmas based on nearest neighbor approximation

Abstract

Most conventional atomic models in a plasma do not treat the effect of the plasma on the free-electron state density. Using a nearest neighbor approximation, the state densities in hydrogenic plasmas for both bound and free electrons were evaluated and the effect of the plasma on the atomic model (especially for the state density of the free electron) was studied. The model evaluates the electron-state densities using the potential distribution formed by the superposition of the Coulomb potentials of two ions. The potential from one ion perturbs the electronic state density on the other. Using this new model, one can evaluate the free-state density without making any ad-hoc assumptions. The resulting contours of the average ionization degree, given as a function of the plasma temperature and density, are shifted slightly to lower temperatures because of the effect of the increasing free-state density.