Influence of an intense magnetic field on transition arrays

The effect of an intense magnetic field on transition arrays is investigated. Explicit formulas for the first moments of the array are given in the weak- and strong-field limits. The result related to the strong-field case is particularly simple: the transition array splits into three components located at the relative positions -μ_BH,0,μ_BH, each component having the same variance as the array without magnetic field. The changes in the opacity of aluminum and neon at low density are then computed for a range of magnetic fields relevant to Z-pinch experiments © 1996 The American Physical Society.