Simple Explanation for the Observed Power Law Distribution of Line Intensity in Complex Many-Electron Atoms

Keisuke Fujii, Julian C. Berengut

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Abstract

It has long been observed that the number of weak lines from many-electron atoms follows a power law distribution of intensity. While computer simulations have reproduced this dependence, its origin has not yet been clarified. Here we report that the combination of two statistical models - an exponential increase in the level density of many-electron atoms and local thermal equilibrium of the excited state population - produces a surprisingly simple analytical explanation for this power law dependence. We find that the exponent of the power law is proportional to the electron temperature. This dependence may provide a useful diagnostic tool to extract the temperature of plasmas of complex atoms without the need to assign lines.

Original languageEnglish
Article number185002
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume124
Issue number18
DOIs
StatePublished - May 8 2020
Externally publishedYes

Funding

This work was partly supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant No. 19K14680, the grant of Joint Research by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) (NINS Program No. 01111905), and partly by the Max-Planck Society for the Advancement of Science. J. C. B. is supported by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. We thank José Crespo López-Urrutia, Tomoyuki Obuchi, and Akira Nishio for useful discussions.

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