Charge state distributions in dense plasmas

Charge state distributions in hot, dense plasmas are a key ingredient the calculation of spectral quantities like opacity. However, they challenging to calculate, as models Saha–Boltzmann become unreliable for dense, quantum plasmas. Here, we present new variational model charge distribution, along with simple energy configurations that includes orbital relaxation effect. Comparison other methods reveals generally good agreement average atom-based calculations, breakdown method, and mixed chemical model. We conclude gives relatively inexpensive, but reasonably high fidelity method calculating distribution hot plasmas, local thermodynamic equilibrium.