Ratio of Balmer line intensities resulting from dissociative excitation of molecular hydrogen in an ionizing plasma

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Abstract
We have estimated the cross section for the production of excited hydrogen atoms from the emission cross sections for Lyman and Balmer lines when molecular hydrogen is dissociated into excited atoms. We have constructed a collisional-radiative model for the system of ground-state hydrogen molecules, excited hydrogen atoms, and protons, in a plasma and have calculated the population density distribution of the excited states. The resulting emission-line intensity ratios for the Balmer series lines are plotted against electron density. We expect these results to be useful for studies of plasmas containing molecular hydrogen, such as occur in the outer region of tokamak plasmas.