A kinetic theory of spectral line shapes

The methods of kinetic theory are used to describe the radiation from an atom immersed in a gas of perturbing particles. It is shown that the line shape can be expressed in terms of a one-particle distribution function. The appropriate BBGKY hierarchy of equations is derived. This hierarchy is then truncated by assuming that only two-body collisions are important. The resulting equations are solved to obtain a non-Markovian kinetic equation which describes the combined effects of Doppler and pressure broadening. When the Markovian assumption is applied, a generalized linear Boltzmann equation is obtained which describes the line shape in the region where the impact limit is valid and which also describes the phenomenon of collisional narrowing.This research was supported in part by the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense, monitored by Army Research Office-Durham under Contract No. DA-31-124-ARO-D-139.