A Green's Function Approach to the Shift of Spectral Lines in Dense Plasmas

Variations of the spectral lines in high dense ion plasmas with temperature and pressure may be characterized by the broadening as well as by the shift of spectral lines. For dense hydrogen- and alkali-plasmas (free carrier density larger than 10¹⁶/cm³) one of the possible mechanisms responsible for line profiles is considered to be the Coulomb interaction with free charged carriers. Using thermodynamic Green's functions, a systematic approach to the theory of spectral lines starting from the complex dielectric function is outlined. The line shift is derived from a perturbative treatment of the two-particle Green's function in the surrounding plasma. The shift of several lines proportional to the carrier density is evaluated as a function of the temperature and compared with experimental results.