The broadening of the calcium resonance line in a high-temperature helium atmosphere

The paper describes experimental measurements of the shape of the Ca I resonance line at 4227 A in a high-temperature helium atmosphere. A ballistic piston compressor was used to produce hot helium in the temperature range from 3000 to 7000 K and the number-density range from 2 to 4 by 10 to the 20th power per cu cm, which conditions approximate those postulated for the atmospheres of certain cool white-dwarf stars. The Boltzmann temperature of the calcium atoms was measured by the brightness-emissivity method, the absorption line shape was measured with a twelve-channel polychromator, and the helium kinetic temperature was calculated from the equation of an ideal gas. The observed deviation from thermodynamic equilibrium is illustrated. The value of the ratio of the damping constant to the helium number density at 5000 K is found to be 45 (+ or - 4) by 10 to the -22nd power A cu cm, or 4.7 (+ or - 0.4) by 10 to the -9th power rad/s cu cm. It is noted that no existing line-broadening calculation for the calcium-helium system is consistent with the present results. Recent studies of the 4227-A line in spectra of the sun and the white dwarf van Maanen 2 are discussed.