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Non-Maxwellian rate coefficients for electron and ion collisions in Rydberg plasmas: implications for excitation and ionization

Part of: Laboratory and Astrophysical Plasmas: New Perspectives

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 May 2020

Daniel Vrinceanu ,
Roberto Onofrio Open the ORCID record for Roberto Onofrio [Opens in a new window]  and
H. R. Sadeghpour
Daniel Vrinceanu
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, Texas Southern University, Houston, TX 77004, USA
Roberto Onofrio*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia ‘Galileo Galilei’, Università di Padova, Via Marzolo 8, 35131Padova, Italy Department of Physics and Astronomy, Dartmouth College, 6127 Wilder Laboratory, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
H. R. Sadeghpour
Affiliation:
ITAMP, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: onofrior@gmail.com
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Abstract

Scattering phenomena between charged particles and highly excited Rydberg atoms are of critical importance in many processes in plasma physics and astrophysics. While a Maxwell–Boltzmann (MB) energy distribution for the charged particles is often assumed for calculations of collisional rate coefficients, in this contribution we relax this assumption and use two different energy distributions, a bimodal MB distribution and a $\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}$-distribution. Both variants share a high-energy tails occurring with higher probability than the corresponding MB distribution. The high-energy tail may significantly affect rate coefficients for various processes. We focus the analysis to specific situations by showing the dependence of the rate coefficients on the principal quantum number of hydrogen atoms in $n$-changing collisions with electrons in the excitation and ionization channels and in a temperature range relevant to the divertor region of a tokamak device. We finally discuss the implications for diagnostics of laboratory plasmas.

Keywords

astrophysical plasmasfusion plasmaplasma diagnostics
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 86 , Issue 3 , June 2020 , 845860301
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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