Nonthermal effects on the Wannier threshold law for the correlated two-electron continuum in Lorentizan plasmas

The nonthermal effects on the Wannier threshold law for the correlated two-electron continuum near the ionization threshold are investigated in nonthermal generalized Lorentzian plasmas. The screened renormalized electron charge and Wannier exponent for the ionization cross section are obtained in the Wannier ridge as functions of the spectral index, Debye length, and charge of the residual ion. It is found that the nonthermal effect strongly reduces the renormalized electron charge, especially in the intermediate distance domain. Hence, we have found that the renormalized electron charge in Lorentzian plasmas is always smaller than that in Maxwellian plasmas. It is also found that the ionization cross sections near the thresholds in Lorentzian plasmas are always greater than those in Maxwellian plasmas since the nonthermal effect suppresses the Wannier exponent in Lorentzian plasmas. In addition, it is found that the plasma screening effect on the Wannier exponent would be more significant in nonthermal plasmas rather than in thermal plasmas. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4729683]