A Calculation of the Instantaneous Population Densities of the Excited Levels of Hydrogen-like Ions in a Plasma

Abstract

The instantaneous population densities for the excited levels of hydrogen-like ions in an optically thin plasma, which is not necessarily in equilibrium, have been calculated for a range of electron temperature of 4000Z2 °K to 256 000Z2 °K and electron density of 108Z7 cm-3 to 1018Z7 cm-3, where Z is the charge of the bare nucleus. The population densities depend linearly on the ground level population densities and tables are presented of two coefficients representing this relation for some of the lower excited levels.