Opacity of High-Temperature Air

Abstract
A new calculation of the opacity of high-temperature air (kT = 1 - 20 eV) is carried out. Line (bound-bound) transitions are included and LS term splitting of configurations is accounted for in the n = 2 and 3 levels. The primary purpose of the calculation is to remove the hydrogenic approximation to the dominant photoelectric and line transitions. In place of the hydrogenic approximation, Hartree-Fock-Slater matrix elements are used for the line transitions. For the photoelectric transitions, a combination of the Burgess-Seaton extension of the Coulomb approximation, and a high-energy acceleration-matrix-element Born approximation is employed. Comparisons are carried out with experiment and with previous calculations. A review and discussion is presented of the statistical mechanics of ionized gases, and some new results pertinent to the calculation of occupation numbers are presented.

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