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Article
X-Ray Emission Cross Sections Following Charge Exchange by Multiply Charged Ions of Astrophysical Interest
Physical Review A
  • Sebastian Otranto, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • Ronald E. Olson, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • P. Beiersdorfer
Abstract

State selective nl-electron capture cross sections are presented for highly charged ions with Z=6-10 colliding with atoms and molecules. The energy range investigated was from 1 eV/amu(v=0.006 a.u.)to 100 keV/amu(v=2.0 a.u.). The energy dependence of the l-level populations is investigated. The K shell x-ray emission cross sections are determined by using the calculated state-selective electron capture results as input and then applying hydrogenic branching and cascading values for the photon emission. A major shift in the line emission from being almost solely Lyman-alpha transitions at the highest collisions energies to strong high-n to 1s transitions at the lowest energies is observed. The calculated cross sections are in reasonable accord with measurements made by Greenwood et al. [Phys. Rev. A 63, 062707 (2001)], using O8+ and Ne10+ on various targets at 3 keV/amu. The calculations are also in accord with x-ray emission cross section data obtained on the EBIT machine at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) where O8+ and Ne10+ high resolution measurements were made at a temperature of 10 eV/amu for a series of targets with varying ionization potentials. The Ne10+ data clearly shows the contribution from multiple capture followed by Auger autoionization in the line emission spectra. Our calculated line emission cross sections are used to provide an ab initio determination of the soft x-ray spectrum of comet C/Linear 1999 S4 that was observed on the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The calculations show that the spectrum is due to the charge exchange of the neutral gases in the comet's coma with the ions of the slow solar wind.

Department(s)
Physics
Sponsor(s)
United States. Department of Energy
Keywords and Phrases
  • Auger Effect,
  • X-Ray Emission Spectra,
  • Astronomical Spectra,
  • Atom-Ion Collisions,
  • Autoionisation,
  • Charge Exchange,
  • Electron Capture,
  • Ion-Molecule Collisions,
  • Ionisation Potential,
  • Neon,
  • Oxygen,
  • Positive Ions,
  • Spectral Line Shift,
  • Ion-atom collisions
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Final Version
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2006 American Physical Society (APS), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
2-1-2006
Publication Date
01 Feb 2006
Disciplines
Citation Information
Sebastian Otranto, Ronald E. Olson and P. Beiersdorfer. "X-Ray Emission Cross Sections Following Charge Exchange by Multiply Charged Ions of Astrophysical Interest" Physical Review A (2006) ISSN: 1050-2947; 2469-9926
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/ronald-olson/38/