Long-range potentials and stark broadening of neutral lines

The influence of the dipole polarization and quadrupole potentials on the Stark broadening of isolated neutral lines in a plasma has been investigated within the semiclassical approximation. It has been shown that both the perturbing electron trajectories and the minimum impact parameter may undergo a noticeable change when reaction of the emitter on the impact electron is taken into account. The effects on the halfwidths of selected lines have been examined within the impact approximation. Calculated results are compared both with available experimental data and other theoretical results. The importance of including long-range effects is also discussed.