Nuclear excitation by electron transition rate confidence interval in aHg201local thermodynamic equilibrium plasma

Abstract

Nuclear excitation by electron transition (NEET) is predicted to be the dominant excitation process of the first $^{201}\text{Hg}$ isomeric state in a laser heated plasma. This process may occur when the energy difference between a nuclear transition and an atomic transition is close to zero, provided the quantum selection rules are fulfilled. At local thermodynamic equilibrium, an average atom model may be used, in a first approach, to evaluate the NEET rate in plasma. The statistical nature of the electronic transition spectrum is then described by the means of a Gaussian distribution around the average atom configuration. However, using a continuous function to describe the electronic spectrum is questionable in the framework of a resonant process, such as NEET. In order to get an idea of when it can be relied upon to predict a NEET rate in plasma, we present in this paper a NEET rate calculation using a model derived from detailed configuration accounting. This calculation allows us to define a confidence interval of the NEET rate around its average atom mean value, which is the first step to design a future experiment.