Radiative electron capture in nonequilibrium plasmas

TL;DRAbstract

Formulae have been obtained for the degree of linear polarization of recombination radiation from a homogeneous plasma having an anisotropic electron velocity distribution, f(v vector), characterized by an axis of symmetry. Polarization measurements are described which utilize these formulae to determine aspects of the anisotropy such as the symmetry axis direction and the lowest order even angular moments of f(v vector). As a special case, if the plasma conforms to a distribution such as a bi-Maxwellian with drift, one can determine the quantities u/sub D//T/sub parallel to/ and (1/T/sub parallel to/ - 1/T/sub perpendicular to/) which involve the electron drift speed, and the perpendicular and parallel electron temperatures. Also, the radiative recombination rate has been calculated for ions whose speeds are comparable to or greater than the electron thermal speed. The change in the rate is small for thermonuclear products in fusion plasmas, but large for cosmic rays in interstellar p

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