BROADENING OF THE RAMAN RESONANCE IN PHOTON SCATTERING IN PLASMAS

The broadening of the Raman resonance, due to the Doppler effect and p article collisions, is considered for the scattering of radiation in p lasmas. The result is used to calculate the transport cross-section fo r the plasma in the solar interior and it is shown that the broadening effect can reduce the solar opacity, This result should therefore be taken into account in the Standard Solar Model, since a reduced opacit y can change the predicted core temperature and hence the predicted fl ux of solar neutrinos. Copyright (C) 1996 Elsevier Science Ltd