Full non-LTE spectral line formation I. Setting the stage

Abstract

Radiative transfer out of local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) has been increasingly adressed, mostly numerically, for about six decades now. However the standard non-LTE problem most often refers to the only deviation of the distribution of photons from their equilibrium i.e., Planckian, distribution. Hereafter we revisit after Oxenius (1986) the so-called "full non-LTE" problem, which considers to couple and therefore to solve self-consistently for deviations from equilibrium distributions of photons as well as for massive particles constituting the atmospheric plasma.