Statistical description of ionization potentials in dense plasmas

The Thomas-Fermi model is used to investigate the influence of the density on the energies of ions in high-density plasmas (?10²¹?10²⁶ cm^?3). This model can be used to explain the two dominant high-density effects — continuum lowering and pressure ionization — by simple energy considerations. The result shows that only the outermost electrons are affected and that the inner region of the ion is hardly influenced by the density.