Saha ionization equation
Ecuación de ionización de Saha
- Date
- 1920 · confidence high
- Place
- University College of Science, Calcutta (Kolkata), West Bengal, India
- Credited to
- Meghnad Saha
- People
- 👤 Meghnad Saha1893–1956
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Equation giving the degree of ionisation of a gas as a function of temperature and pressure, applying statistical thermodynamics to atoms. It explained the spectral sequence of stars as an effect of temperature rather than composition.
Saha sent the paper to Philosophical Magazine from Calcutta in 1920; Cecilia Payne used it in her 1925 thesis.
What it led to
- physical interpretation of spectral classification
- determination of stellar temperatures
- plasma physics