BREAKDOWN OF THE LINE-SPACE CONCEPT IN STARK-BROADENING OF SPECTRAL-LINES BY PLASMAS

A study is presented that proves that the standard model for calculati on of line shapes, e.g., transitions from nl to n'l' must be modified to include levels from higher principal quantum number manifolds, n '' >n'. This becomes particularly important in the study of transitions w ithout central components, exhibiting a central minimum, as the effect of the higher n '' states is to cause a filling in of the central min imum. An analytic derivation is provided and detailed calculations are performed to illustrate the effect.