A note on the Voigt profile function

Abstract

A Voigt profile function emerges in several physical investigations (e.g. atmospheric radiative transfer, astrophysical spectroscopy, plasma waves and acoustics) and it turns out to be the convolution of the Gaussian and the Lorentzian densities. Its relation with a number of special functions has been widely derived in literature starting from its Fourier type integral representation. The main aim of the present paper is to introduce the Mellin-Barnes integral representation as a useful tool to obtain new analytical results. Here, starting from the Mellin-Barnes integral representation, the Voigt function is expressed in terms of the Fox H-function which includes representations in terms of the Meijer G-function and previously well-known representations with other special functions.