Consecutive reversible ionization-recombination reactions and ionic charge state distribution of Au plasma

The present work proposes kinetics of ionization-recombination to study the charge state distribution of Au plasma. The first step is to calculate the average lifetime, energy level structure, degeneracy and partition function of Au⁴⁸—Au⁵²⁺ by relativistic quantum mechanics, and next to compute the equilibrium constant and the second-order recombination rate constant by statistical thermodynamics. Based on these data, the differential equations of consecutive reversible ionization-recombination reactions are solved from which the charge state distribution and its average charge are derived. Finally, the influence of electron temperature and density on average charge is given in this paper. It is called the first-principle theory, for no experimental data are needed.