The effect of first order superconfiguration energies on the opacity of hot dense matter

We have recently completed developing a new super transition array (STA) code for calculating absorption and emission spectra of LTE plasmas. The code follows the theory of Bar-Shalom et al. with various improvements. In this work we focus on the first order correction for the Boltzmann populations for which traditional calculations can be very costly. We present here a method faster by an order of magnitude than the traditional method. We then investigate the effect of this correction on the opacity spectra of several elements. Finally we interpret results of a recent opacity experiment on gold plasma. A good agreement is reached.