Spectral line shape in the limit of frequent velocity-changing collisions

Abstract

The speed-dependent spectral line profiles collapse into a simple Lorentz profile in the regime dominated by the velocity-changing collisions. We derive general formulas for the effective width and shift of the Lorentzian for arbitrary speed-dependent collisional broadening and shift and velocity-changing collision operators. For a quadratic speed dependence of collisional broadening and shift, and the billiard ball model of velocity-changing collisions, we provide simple analytical expressions for the effective Lorentzian width and shift. We show that the effective Lorentzian width and shift split into components originating from the: well-known Dicke-narrowed Doppler width, speed-averaged collisional broadening and shift, their speed dependencies, and a product term that mixes the contributions of the broadening and shift speed dependencies. We show how the components depend on rates of speed-changing and velocity-changing collisions related to the perturber/absorber mass ratio. We validate analytical formulas numerically on example of H$_{2}$ transition perturbed by He.