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Collisional and Radiative Processes in Optically Thin Plasmas

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Abstract

Most of our knowledge of the physical processes in distant plasmas is obtained through measurement of the radiation they produce. Here we provide an overview of the main collisional and radiative processes and examples of diagnostics relevant to the microphysical processes in the plasma. Many analyses assume a time-steady plasma with ion populations in equilibrium with the local temperature and Maxwellian distributions of particle velocities, but these assumptions are easily violated in many cases. We consider these departures from equilibrium and possible diagnostics in detail.

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Acknowledgement

The authors would like to thank Dr. Helen Mason for comments on Sects. 3 and 4 and Professor Peter Cargill for his comments and suggestions for improving the manuscript as a whole. We also thank the anonymous referee for their valuable input.

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  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX, 77005, USA

    Stephen J. Bradshaw

  2. Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden St., Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

    John Raymond

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Bradshaw, S.J., Raymond, J. Collisional and Radiative Processes in Optically Thin Plasmas. Space Sci Rev 178, 271–306 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-013-9970-0

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