Configurations and transition arrays in highly-ionized atoms

The formalism of transition arrays is presented. It is useful for the analysis of the emission spectra of highly-ionized atoms. Moreover, transition arrays, and the corresponding configurations, possess other global properties than their average wavenumber and width, e.g., the emissive zones, the splitting into subarrays, the effect of configuration mixing, the distribution of line strengths. Compact formulas in terms of the radial Slater and spin-orbit integrals characterize all these properties, in intermediate coupling, without the need for any diagonalization. (orig.)