Line shape virial expansion

Time-dependent correlation functions. Similar pair and triplet distributions, which describe the time evolution of a system, are also known [318]. These have found interesting uses for the theory of virial expansions of spectral line shapes, pp. 225 ff. below [297, 298],... 

We start with the basic relationships ( Ansatz ) of collision-induced spectra (Section 5.1). Next we consider spectral moments and their virial expansions (Section 5.2) two- and three-body moments of low order will be discussed in some detail. An analogous virial expansion of the line shape follows (Section 5.3). Quantum and classical computations of binary line shapes are presented in Sections 5.4 and 5.5, which are followed by a discussion of the symmetry of the spectral profiles (Section 5.6). Many-body effects on line shape are discussed in Sections 5.7 and 5.8, particularly the intercollisional dip. We conclude this Chapter with a brief discussion of model line shapes (Section 5.10). 

Summarizing, it may be said that virial expansions of spectral line shapes of induced spectra exist for frequencies much greater than the reciprocal mean free time between collisions. The coefficients of the density squared and density cubed terms represent the effects of purely binary and ternary collisions, respectively. At the present time, computations of the spectral component do not exist except in the form of the spectral moments see the previous Section for details. 

M. Moraldi, Virial expansion of correlation functions for collision-induced spectroscopies, in Spectral Line Shapes 6, L. Frommhold and J. W. Keto, eds., American Institute of Physics 1990. 

The theory of line shapes of systems involving one or more molecules starts from the same relationships mentioned in Chapter 5. We will not repeat here the basic developments, e.g., the virial expansion, and proceed directly to the discussion of binary molecular systems. It has been amply demonstrated that at not too high gas densities the intensities of most parts of the induced absorption spectra vary as density squared, which suggests a binary origin. However, in certain narrow frequency bands, especially in the Q branches, this intensity variation with density q differs from the q2 behavior (intercollisional effect) the binary line shape theory does not describe the observed spectra where many-body processes are significant. In the absence of a workable theory that covers all frequencies at once, even in the low-density limit one has to treat the intercollisional parts of the spectra separately and remember that the binary theory fails at certain narrow frequency bands [318],... 

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