Modern Methods in Collisional-radiative Modeling of Plasmas

This book provides a compact yet comprehensive overview of recent developments in collisional-radiative (CR) modeling of laboratory and astrophysical plasmas. It describes advances across the entire field, from basic considerations of model completeness to validation and verification of CR models to calculation of plasma kinetic characteristics and spectra in diverse plasmas. 

Various approaches to CR modeling are presented, together with numerous examples of applications.  A number of important topics, such as atomic models for CR modeling, atomic data and its availability and quality, radiation transport, non-Maxwellian effects on plasma emission, ionization potential lowering, and verification and validation of CR models, are thoroughly addressed. Strong emphasis is placed on the most recent developments in the field, such as XFEL spectroscopy.

Written by leading international research scientists from a number of key laboratories, the book offers a timely summary of the most recent progress in this area. It will be a useful and practical guide for students and experienced researchers working in plasma spectroscopy, spectra simulations, and related fields.

Dr. Ralchenko works in atomic physics, collisional-radiative modeling, atomic data, plasma emission, and plasma population kinetics. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, citation (partial): “for significant contributions to the relativistic theory of highly-charged ions and collisional-radiative modeling…”