Articles

Laboratory Measurements of Fe XXIV Line Emission: 3→2 Transitions Near
Excitation Threshold

Savin, Daniel Wolf; Gu, M. F.; Kahn, S. M.; Beiersdorfer, P.; Brown, G. V.; Liedahl, D. A.; Reed, K. J.; Bhalla , C. P.; Grabbe, S. R.

Using the Electron Beam Ion Trap facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, we have measured relative cross sections for Fe XXIV line emission at electron energies between 0.7 and 3.0 keV. The measurements include line formation by direct electron impact excitation (DE), radiative cascades, resonant excitation (RE), and dielectronic recombination (DR) satellites with captured electrons in n≥5 levels. Good agreement with R-matrix and distorted wave calculations is found. In collisionally ionized plasmas, at temperatures near where the ion abundance peaks (kTe~1.7 keV), the RE contributions are found to be ≲5% of the line emission, while the DR satellites contribute ≲10%. While good agreement with state-of-the-art atomic physics calculations is found, there is less good agreement with existing spectral synthesis codes in common astrophysical use. For the Fe XXIV 3p3/2 → 2s1/2, 3p1/2 → 2s1/2, and 3d5/2 → 2p3/2 transitions, the synthesis code MEKAL underestimates the emissivity in coronal equilibrium by ~20% at temperatures near where the ion abundance peaks. In situations where the ionization balance is not solely determined by the electron temperature, RE and DR satellites may contribute a considerable fraction of the line emission.

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Title
The Astrophysical Journal
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1086/307326

More About This Work

Academic Units
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Published Here
March 15, 2013