Asymmetries of Pressure Broadened Spectral Lines

Experiments have disclosed peculiar asymmetries in the intensity distribution of pressure broadened lines. The present paper is devoted to their explanation. The simple case of a one-dimensional gas is considered and an expression for the line contour developed. By graphical methods we have calculated the line contours corresponding to three typical interaction curves. Results are given in Figs. 1 to 3. The conclusion is that, by taking proper account of the repulsive portions of the energy curves, the empirically found asymmetries can be reproduced.