Three-body recombination
= Three-body recombination
Three-body recombination captures an <Electron> while a second free electron carries away energy, the inverse of direct electron-impact ionization. Its rate scales as the parent-ion density times the square of electron density. It is usually negligible compared with two-body <radiative recombination> and <dielectronic recombination> in the low-density solar corona, but matters in sufficiently dense plasmas.