Cowan Code: 50 Years of Growing Impact on Atomic Physics

The famous Cowan’s book, “The Theory of Atomic Structure and Spectra”, published in 1981, and his suite of computer codes based on it, continue to be highly influential in atomic physics and many other research areas. As of September 2018, there have been more than 5000...

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Main Author: Alexander Kramida
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2019-07-01
Series:Atoms
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2218-2004/7/3/64
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author Alexander Kramida
author_facet Alexander Kramida
author_sort Alexander Kramida
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description The famous Cowan’s book, “The Theory of Atomic Structure and Spectra”, published in 1981, and his suite of computer codes based on it, continue to be highly influential in atomic physics and many other research areas. As of September 2018, there have been more than 5000 citations to Cowan’s book and codes, and each year adds about 150 citations to this list. The present work briefly describes what these codes do and why they are responsible for most of the current progress in the analyses of atomic spectra. Various modifications of these codes, including my own, will also be described.
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spelling doaj.art-9259a8eab670415595e5aa5d0ac2f5aa2022-12-21T18:43:54ZengMDPI AGAtoms2218-20042019-07-01736410.3390/atoms7030064atoms7030064Cowan Code: 50 Years of Growing Impact on Atomic PhysicsAlexander Kramida0National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD 20899, USAThe famous Cowan’s book, “The Theory of Atomic Structure and Spectra”, published in 1981, and his suite of computer codes based on it, continue to be highly influential in atomic physics and many other research areas. As of September 2018, there have been more than 5000 citations to Cowan’s book and codes, and each year adds about 150 citations to this list. The present work briefly describes what these codes do and why they are responsible for most of the current progress in the analyses of atomic spectra. Various modifications of these codes, including my own, will also be described.https://www.mdpi.com/2218-2004/7/3/64Cowan codeatomic structureenergy levelstransition probabilitiessemiempirical parametric calculations
spellingShingle Alexander Kramida
Cowan Code: 50 Years of Growing Impact on Atomic Physics
Atoms
Cowan code
atomic structure
energy levels
transition probabilities
semiempirical parametric calculations
title Cowan Code: 50 Years of Growing Impact on Atomic Physics
title_full Cowan Code: 50 Years of Growing Impact on Atomic Physics
title_fullStr Cowan Code: 50 Years of Growing Impact on Atomic Physics
title_full_unstemmed Cowan Code: 50 Years of Growing Impact on Atomic Physics
title_short Cowan Code: 50 Years of Growing Impact on Atomic Physics
title_sort cowan code 50 years of growing impact on atomic physics
topic Cowan code
atomic structure
energy levels
transition probabilities
semiempirical parametric calculations
url https://www.mdpi.com/2218-2004/7/3/64
work_keys_str_mv AT alexanderkramida cowancode50yearsofgrowingimpactonatomicphysics