Dense plasma opacity from excited states method

Abstract

The self-consistent inclusion of plasma effects in opacity calculations is a significant modeling challenge. As density increases, such effects can no longer be treated perturbatively. Building on a a recently published model that addresses this challenge, we calculate opacities of oxygen at solar interior conditions. The new model includes the effects of treating the free electrons consistently with the bound electrons, and the influence of free electron energy and entropy variations are explored. It is found that, relative to a state-of-the-art-model that does not include these effects, the bound free opacity of the oxygen plasmas considered can increase by 10%.