Super-transition-arrays: A model for the spectral analysis of hot, dense plasma

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Abstract
A method is presented for calculating the bound-bound emission from a local thermodynamic equilibrium plasma. The total transition array of a specific single-electron transition, including all possible contributing configurations, is described by only a small number of super-transition-arrays (STA’s). Exact analytic expressions are given for the first few moments of an STA. The method is shown to interpolate smoothly between the average-atom (AA) results and the detailed configuration accounting that underlies the unresolved transition array (UTA) method. Each STA is calculated in its own, optimized potential, and the model achieves rapid convergence in the number of STA’s included. Comparisons of predicted STA spectra with the results of the AA and UTA methods are presented. It is shown that under certain plasma conditions the contributions of low-probability transitions can accumulate into an important component of the emission. In these cases, detailed configuration accounting is impractical. On the other hand, the detailed structure of the spectrum under such conditions is not described by the AA method. The application of the STA method to laser-produced plasma experiments is discussed.