Contribution of Lienard-Wiechert Potential to the Electron Broadening of Spectral Lines in Plasmas

Abstract

Lienard-Wiechert or retarded electric and magnetic fields are produced by moving electric charges with respect to a rest frame. In hot plasmas, such fields may be created by high velocity free electrons. The resulting electric field has a relativistic expression that depends on the ratio of the free electron velocity to the speed of light in vacuum c. In this work, we consider the semi-classical dipole interaction between the emitter ions and the Lienard-Wiechert electric field of the free electrons and compute its contribution to the broadening of the spectral line shape in hot and dense plasmas.