Abstract
It has long been observed that the number of weak lines from many-electron atoms follows a power law distribution of intensity. While computer simulations have reproduced this dependence, its origin has not yet been clarified. Here we report that the combination of two statistical models-an exponential increase in the level density of many-electron atoms and local thermal equilibrium of the excited state population-produces a surprisingly simple analytical explanation for this power law dependence. We find that the exponent of the power law is proportional to the electron temperature. This dependence may provide a useful diagnostic tool to extract the temperature of plasmas of complex atoms without the need to assign lines.
Highlights
It has long been observed that the number of weak lines from many-electron atoms follows a power law distribution of intensity
We report that the combination of two statistical models—an exponential increase in the level density of many-electron atoms and local thermal equilibrium of the excited state population— produces a surprisingly simple analytical explanation for this power law dependence
It has long been known that the number of weak lines emitted by many-electron atoms in plasmas follows an intensity power law
Summary
It has long been known that the number of weak lines emitted by many-electron atoms in plasmas follows an intensity power law. Simple Explanation for the Observed Power Law Distribution of Line Intensity in Complex Many-Electron Atoms It has long been observed that the number of weak lines from many-electron atoms follows a power law distribution of intensity.
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