Abstract
Modeling the spectral emission of low-charge iron group ions enables the diagnostic determination of the local physical conditions of many cool plasma environments such as those found in H II regions, planetary nebulae, active galactic nuclei, etc. Electron-impact excitation drives the population of the emitting levels and, hence, their emissivities. By carrying-out Breit-Pauli and intermediate coupling frame transformation (ICFT) R-matrix calculations for the electron-impact excitation of Fe2 +, which both use the exact same atomic structure and the same close-coupling expansion, we demonstrate the validity of the application of the powerful ICFT method to low-charge iron group ions. This is in contradiction to the finding of Bautista et al., who carried-out ICFT and Dirac R-matrix calculations for the same ion. We discuss possible reasons.
Original language | English |
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Number of pages | 5 |
Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
Volume | 785 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Apr 2014 |
Keywords
- Dirac R-matrix
- Breit-Pauli
- spectral emissions
- cool plasma environments