2017/07/17 by Miguel A. de Avillez, Dieter Breitschwerdt · 4 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Dust and Plasma Wave Phenomena #Electron #Emission spectrum #Ionization #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Laser-Plasma Interactions and Diagnostics #Plasma #Radiative equilibrium #Radiative transfer #Range (aeronautics) #Thermal #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.3847/1538-4365/aa850a
published in The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 232(1), 12 (Institute of Physics) · Accepted for publication in ApJS. 70 pages, 7 figures and 11 tables
arxiv created 2017/07/17 · openalex created_date 2017/07/31 · openalex publication_date 2017/09/01 · arxiv updated 2017/09/20 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract Tracking the thermal evolution of plasmas, characterized by an n -distribution, using numerical simulations, requires the determination of the emission spectra and of the radiative losses due to free–free emission from the corresponding temperature-averaged and total Gaunt factors. Detailed calculations of the latter are presented and associated with n -distributed electrons with the parameter n ranging from 1 (corresponding to the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution) to 100. The temperature-averaged and total Gaunt factors with decreasing n tend toward those obtained with the Maxwell–Boltzmann distribution. Radiative losses due to free–free emission in a plasma evolving under collisional ionization equilibrium conditions and composed by H, He, C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, and Fe ions, are presented. These losses decrease with a decrease in the parameter n , reaching a minimum when n = 1, and thus converge with the loss of thermal plasma. Tables of the thermal-averaged and total Gaunt factors calculated for n -distributions, and a wide range of electron and photon energies, are presented.