Improved Self‐Energy Calculations for Pressure Broadening of Spectral Lines in Dense Plasmas

Pressure broadening of Lyman‐lines of hydrogen‐like lithium (Li 2+ ) has been studied using a quantum statistical approach to the line shape in dense plasmas, for details see [1]. In this communication, we concentrate on the electronic self‐energy, which is a basic input to the theory of spectral line profiles. We discuss the effect of strong, i.e. close, collisions which have been neglected so far for Li 2+ plasmas, but play generally an important role in dense plasmas, as has been shown in [2]. We present a method to calculate an improved electronic self‐energy including strong collisions based on a two‐body T‐matrix and an effective optical potential. The method is tested for level broadening of the ground state of hydrogen (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)