Abstract
In this chapter the statistical description of atomic radiative-collisional processes for complex heavy ions in electron atomic collisions is developed. The local plasma frequency model and the Thomas-Fermi electron density distribution are applied for the description of collisional processes making it possible to express the atomic characteristics (energy structure and oscillator strengths) as well as transition probabilities in terms of a functional of the electron density distribution inside atoms and ions. The Fermi method of equivalent photons allows to express the collisional rates in terms of photo-excitation or ionization cross sections. The statistical description is applied for efficient calculations of ionization cross sections and rates for different highly charged ions demonstrating a very good correspondence with detailed quantum mechanical calculations. Likewise, the dielectronic recombination rates obtained from statistical models are compared with quantum results for different ionization states of many chemical elements. The statistical method is in very good agreement with sophisticated detailed level-by-level quantum calculations and is of much higher precision than the usually applied Burgess formula. Finally, the statistical approach is applied for calculations of radiative energy losses of tungsten ions in hot thermonuclear plasmas. The results for the low-density case (coronal condition) of magnetically confined plasmas demonstrate a rather good correspondence with more detailed numerical calculations and measurements. In addition, the transition from the low-density corona condition to the high-density Boltzmann limit can be described via a simple application of detailed balance in the two-state approximation. In general, quite reasonable precision of the statistical model for different kinds of radiative-collisional processes is demonstrated. Moreover, general formulae and scaling relations can be obtained from the statistical approach that would otherwise difficult to obtain.
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Rosmej, F.B., Astapenko, V.A., Lisitsa, V.S. (2021). The Plasma Atom. In: Plasma Atomic Physics. Springer Series on Atomic, Optical, and Plasma Physics, vol 104. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05968-2_9
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