Variability of the adiabatic parameter

The ionization structure was calculated solving a system of 112 linear equations using the Gauss elimination method with scaled partial pivoting. Numerical integrations used in the calculation of ionization and excitation rates are carried out using the double-exponential over a semi-finite interval method. In both methods a precision of 10^-15^ is adopted.

The total internal energy of the plasma is mainly dominated by the ionization energy for temperatures lower than 8x10^4^K with the excitation energy having a contribution of less than one percent. In thermal and non-thermal plasmas composed of H, He, and metals, the adiabatic parameter evolution is determined by the H and He ionizations leading to a profile in general having three transitions. However, for {kappa} distributed plasmas these three transitions are not observed for {kappa<15} and for {kappa<5} there are no transitions.

In general, {gamma} varies from 1.01 to 5/3. Lookup tables of the {gamma} parameter are presented as supplementary material.