Kinetic Equations for Stark Line Shapes

Abstract

The Bogoliubov-Born-Green-Kirkwood-Yvon (BBGKY) formalism is revisited in the framework of plasma spectroscopy. We address the issue of Stark line shape modeling by using kinetic transport equations. In the most simplified treatment of these equations, triple correlations between an emitter and the perturbing charged particles are neglected and a collisional description of Stark effect is obtained. Here we relax this assumption and retain triple correlations using a generalization of the Kirkwood truncature hypothesis to quantum operator. An application to hydrogen lines is done in the context of plasma diagnostic. It is shown that the neglect of triple correlations can lead to a significant overestimate of the line width.