Collisional redistribution of hydrogen line radiation in low- and moderate-density magnetized plasmas.

A computer simulation technique has been applied to the modeling of radiation redistribution functions in low- and moderate-density magnetized hydrogen plasmas. The radiating dipole is described within the Heisenberg picture, and perturbations by the plasma microfield are accounted for through a time-dependent Stark effect term in the Hamiltonian. Numerical applications are presented for the first Lyman and Balmer lines at plasma conditions relevant to tokamak divertors and magnetized white dwarf atmospheres. In both cases, the collisional redistribution of the radiation frequency is shown to be incomplete. Comparisons with a previously developed impact model are performed, and results are discussed.

Retaining space and time coherence in radiative transfer models.

A recent model for radiative transfer that accounts for spatial coherence is extended in such a way as to retain temporal coherence. The method employs Bogoliubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon hierarchy techniques. Both spatial and temporal coherence are shown to affect the formation of atomic line spectra. Calculations of Lyman α radiation transport in optically thick divertor plasma conditions are reported as an illustration of the model. A possible extension of the formalism to dense media involving correlations between atoms is discussed in an appendix. A link to partial frequency redistribution modeling is also discussed.

Divergence of the Stark collision operator at large impact parameters in plasma spectroscopy models.

The divergence that occurs at large impact parameters in Stark collision operators is examined for low-density hydrogen plasmas. In a previous work [J. Rosato, H. Capes, and R. Stamm, Phys. Rev. E 86, 046407 (2012)], we showed that the correlations between a radiating atom and the charged particles surrounding it affect the mean evolution of the atom, resulting in a mitigation of the Stark broadening near the line center. In this work, we examine the physical mechanism underlying this mitigation with an approach inspired from the standard semiclassical impact model. Our approach accounts for the atom-perturber correlations in a simple fashion, through a cutoff at large impact parameters, and embraces the impact model in the weakly coupled plasma limit. Comparisons with numerical simulations are performed and indicate a good agreement.

Radiative transfer with partial coherence in optically thick plasmas.

A quantum transport model for atomic line radiation in plasmas is developed and analyzed. It is found that the Wigner phase space formulation of QED provides a consistent way to address the wave-particle duality in radiative transfer problems. If the photons' thermal de Broglie length is much smaller than all of the spatial scales of the problem under consideration (large-spectral-band limit), the radiation is not coherent and radiative transfer can be addressed with the usual treatments. In the general case, the Heisenberg uncertainty relation yields ambiguities in the description of the radiation-matter interaction mechanisms. We examine this issue and show that an accurate description of radiative transfer should involve a model with nonlocal interactions and requires an appropriate coarse-graining procedure. Calculations of transmission factors and absorption spectra in ideal cases are performed and indicate that significant misinterpretations can be made in spectroscopic diagnostics if the radiation coherence is not well accounted for. Applications to laser physics are also discussed.

Influence of correlated collisions on Stark-broadened lines in plasmas.

An investigation of spectral line broadening in plasmas is carried out within a kinetic-theory approach, based on the Bogoliubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon (BBGKY) hierarchy. The model employs a resummation procedure to account for correlated emitter-perturber collisions. Applications to hydrogen lines indicate that such collisions strongly affect the width and the shape in the core region. This argument is supported by comparisons to numerical simulations. It is also shown that the usual collision operator models, based on a binary description of emitter-perturber collisions, can be extremely inaccurate. The present model, in a better agreement with numerical simulations, is suggested as an extension suitable for the design of fast and accurate numerical routines for plasma diagnostics.

Coherence effects on photon absorption in optically thick plasmas.

A kinetic photon transport model that accounts for spatial coherence is applied to line radiation in optically thick plasmas. It is shown that the photon emission and absorption processes are delocalized in space, which alters the global plasma opacity to spectral lines. Based on this analysis, we demonstrate that spectral profiles and escape factors can be much larger than expected from usual formulas.

Stark broadening of hydrogen lines in low-density magnetized plasmas.

Stark broadening of hydrogen lines in the presence of a magnetic field is revisited, with emphasis on the role of the ion component under typical conditions of magnetized fusion devices. An impact theory for ions valid at low density (N_{e} < or approximately 10;{14} cm;{-3}) and taking into account the Zeeman degeneracy removal of the atomic states is developed. It is shown that the Stark widths of the Lorentz triplet components strongly depend on the magnetic field. The model is validated by a computer simulation method. For the lateral sigma components of Lyalpha , we show that the impact approximation still holds for densities as high as N_{e} approximately 10;{15} cm;{-3}. In contrast, for the central pi component as well as for the other lines from low principal quantum number, significant discrepancies between the proposed theory and the simulation results appear at high density. Application to Dalpha in tokamak divertor plasma conditions shows that, in this case, the quasistatic approximation becomes more relevant.

Secretion of human chorionic gonadotrophin by the early placenta in Vitro.

The secretion in vitro of HCG and proteins was studied in fragments of placenta from women in the first trimester of pregnancy by a pulse-chase system. A 10-min pulse with [3H]leucine was used. It was concluded that the approximate half-time of release of HCG was 150 min. Proteins precipitable with trichloroacetic acid had a bi-exponential pattern, the half-times of release being 100 and 270 min. These rates of release indicate that the HCG produced by the early placenta was rapidly passed into the circulation rather than stored.