Major and Minor Contributions to X-ray Characteristic Lines in the Framework of the Boltzmann Transport Equation

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Title: Major and minor contributions to X-ray characteristic lines in the framework of the Boltzmann transport equation

MS NO: qubs-1682810

 

In this paper, the Boltzmann transport equation is utilized to investigate major and minor contributions to X-ray characteristic lines. The organization and composition of the manuscript are perfect. The work and the presented results are novel and are of great importance to the related audience. I recommend it be accepted for publication in this journal.

Author Response

The authors appreciate the comments of the reviewer.

Reviewer 2 Report

qubs-1682810 -The Review paper entitled "Major and minor contributions to X-ray characteristic lines in the framework of the Boltzmann transport equation" deals with an interesting topic and can be interesting for readers of the journal. Through this study, the authors give a complete picture of the photon kernel describing the emission of characteristic x-rays comprising the main photoelectric contribution and the three effects of lower extent.

A few points that require the attention of the authors are: 
-    Figure 6 is not clear (poor quality). 
-   More than 50% of the references cited in the manuscript are from older literature reviews. Recent literature must be cited. 
-  The English of the paper should be checked for grammatical errors and other sentence formations. Some repetitions are also present in the manuscript that must be avoided.     
Hence, I would recommend a minor revision to the manuscript before publication to make it more impactful. 

Author Response

The authors appreciate the comments of the reviewer.
Concerning the specific points indicated:

1. Fig. 6 has been reorganized to fill a complete page in order to improve the readability.
2. The references indicated are the classical ones used by in the most popular databases and tested by the authors with the Monte Carlo code MCSHAPE. New references have been added for the atomic parameters. In particular, it is mentioned the continue effort of the scientific community participating at the International Iniciative on Fundamental Parameters to improve the knowledge of these parameters.
3. The English has been improved as requested.

Reviewer 3 Report

This is a well-organized comprehensive review of the four ionization mechanisms that contribute to the emission of characteristic X-ray lines which are essential to describing multiple scattering using the Boltzmann transport equation for photons. I have just a few of comments:

1. For Figures 3 to 7, you should mention the figure numbers in your discussions just as you did for Fig.1 and Fig. 2. This will make it easier for readers to follow your discussions.
2. Read through and correct some minor grammatical errors. As an example, correct "It is shown the extent" to "This shows the extent" in the last sentences in the figure captions for Figure 3 and Figure 4.
3. It will be good to see how much these new additions/calculations fit with experimental data compared to the traditional description of X-ray characteristic lines. You may give a brief discussion on this in your conclusion section or this could be considered in future work.

Author Response

The authors appreciate the comments of the reviewer.
Specifically:

1. A reference for all the figures has been included in the text.
2. The captions of figs. 3 and 4 have been modified as suggested.
3. A specific mention of situations were the influence of the minor contributions can be relevant has been included in the Conclusions section.