Abstract
The interaction between quasimolecular states produces not only nonadiabatic transitions but also some exotic features in the wings of the spectral profiles emitted by the ions in collision. Although this concept has been fruitfully used for neutral species, some new highlighted experimental data on quasimolecular optical transitions in hot dense plasma have renewed the interest to the concept in the recent years. The present review deals with highly charged quasimolecules and it is dedicated specifically to quasimolecules formed by two bare nuclei and one bound electron. The reason for this choice is that, for such quasimolecules, the energy terms and the dipole moments of the optical transitions can be obtained straightforwardly in nonrelativistic case without any approximation that are typical for neutrals. Although the results obtained in the frame of the approach developed here are directly applicable to the case of single collisions or to low-density plasmas, they form a reasonable initial approximation for the problem of optical profiles in hot dense plasmas and can be regarded as a safe framework for qualitative discussions of profiles in those environments.
Highlights
Features of Spectral Profiles following the Interaction of Quasimolecular StatesThe concept of quasi-molecular (QM) states that are formed during collisions of atomic particles has proved to be successful in describing collision processes at low energies including charge-exchange processes
The question arises whether the interaction of the states during a collision affects the spectral line shape and if so, how? An analysis based on the general theory of quasistationary states, that is, the states that are unstable due to the emission of photons or electrons during the collisions, has shown that the interaction of QM states does give rise to exotic features in the profiles [3, 4]
The most distinctive collisions process involving ions is charge-exchange so that QM optical transitions have been analyzed in connection with charge-exchange process
Summary
Features of Spectral Profiles following the Interaction of Quasimolecular States. The concept of quasi-molecular (QM) states that are formed during collisions of atomic particles has proved to be successful in describing collision processes at low energies including charge-exchange processes. The main objective of the present paper is to overview the recent theoretical and numerical developments in the specific field of spectral signatures of nonadiabatic transitions, namely, charge-exchange processes. Those processes are basic ones for plasma physics, and, among other things, they play an important role in understanding the interaction of high-temperature plasmas with cold gases [15] or the interactions at the edge plasmas in Tokamaks [16]. The reason is that, in addition to hot plasma and astrophysics applications, the one-electron quasi-molecule is the unique example of quasi-molecules for which energy terms and dipole moments can be calculated straightforwardly, with any desired precision excluding uncertainties in the input data (those uncertainties on terms and dipole moments are quite typical in the calculations of profiles produced by neutrals collisions.)
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