2009/05/05 by M. F. Gu, Gu, M. F.
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies #Magnetic Properties of Alloys #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) #X-ray Spectroscopy and Fluorescence Analysis #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0905.0519
This paper was written up in 2007/2008, and submitted to ApJ. It was rejected by ApJ referees in 2008. I am posting it here just to keep a record of the work
arxiv created 2009/05/05 · openalex publication_date 2009/05/05 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We review the accuracy of existing \ionFe17 X-ray line emission models by comparing them with an extensive analysis of Chandra high energy transmission grating (HETG) observations of stellar coronae. We find significant discrepancies between most theoretical predictions and observations for at least some of the intensity ratios involving the six principal Fe XVII lines, 3C (15.01 Å), 3D (15.26 Å), 3E (15.45 Å), 3F (16.78 Å), 3G (17.05 Å), and M2 (17.10 Å). We suggest that the main problem of most previous theoretical studies to their inability to fully include electron correlation effects in the atomic structure calculations, while any deficiencies in the scattering approximation methods are of minor importance, regardless of it being close-coupling (CC) or distorted-wave (DW). An approximate method based on the many-body perturbation theory and DW approximation is proposed to include such correlation effects in the calculation of collisional excitation cross sections. The results are shown to agree with coronal observations and laboratory measurements better than most previous theories. Using the new atomic data, we then investigate the electron density sensitivity of the M2/3G intensity ratio and provide an improved density diagnostic tool for astrophysical observations.