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Title: Electron - atom bremsstrahlung

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:5188508

Features of bremsstrahlung radiation from neutral atoms and atoms in hot dense plasmas are studied. Predictions for the distributions of electron-atom bremsstrahlung radiation for both the point-Coulomb potential and screened potentials are obtained using a classical numerical method. Results agree with exact quantum-mechanical partial-wave results for low incident electron energies in both the point-Coulomb and screened potentials. In the screened potential, the asymmetry parameter of a spectrum is reduced from the Coulomb values. The difference increases with decreasing energy and begins to oscillate at very low energies. The scaling properties of bremsstrahlung spectra and energy losses were also studied. It was found that the ratio of the radiative energy loss for positrons to that for electrons obeys a simple scaling law, being expressible fairly accurately as a function only of the quantity T/sub 1//Z/sup 2/. This scaling is exact in the case of the point-Coulomb potential, both for classical bremsstrahlung and for the nonrelativistic dipole Sommerfeld formula. Bremsstrahlung from atoms in hot dense plasmas were also studied describing the atomic potentials by the temperature-and-density dependent Thomas-Fermi mode. Gaunt factors were obtained with the relativistic partial-wave method for atoms in plasmas of various densities and temperatures.

Research Organization:
Pittsburgh Univ., PA (USA)
OSTI ID:
5188508
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English