Plasma code for astrophysical charge exchange emission at X-ray wavelengths

Charge exchange X-ray emission provides unique insight into the interactions between cold and hot astrophysical plasmas. Besides its own profound science, this emission is also technically crucial to all observations in the X-ray band, since charge exchange with the solar wind often contributes a si...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Astronomy and astrophysics (Berlin) 2016-04, Vol.588, p.A52
Main Authors: Gu, Liyi, Kaastra, Jelle, Raassen, A. J. J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
atomic data
atomic processes
Cascades
Charge
Charge exchange
Comets
comets: individual: C/2000 WM1 (LINEAR)
Emission
Emission analysis
Solar wind
X-rays
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Charge exchange X-ray emission provides unique insight into the interactions between cold and hot astrophysical plasmas. Besides its own profound science, this emission is also technically crucial to all observations in the X-ray band, since charge exchange with the solar wind often contributes a significant foreground component that contaminates the signal of interest. By approximating the cross sections resolved to n and l atomic subshells and carrying out complete radiative cascade calculation, we have created a new spectral code to evaluate the charge exchange emission in the X-ray band. Compared to collisional thermal emission, charge exchange radiation exhibits enhanced lines from large-n shells to the ground, as well as large forbidden-to-resonance ratios of triplet transitions. Our new model successfully reproduces an observed high-quality spectrum of comet C/2000 WM1 (LINEAR), which emits purely by charge exchange between solar wind ions and cometary neutrals. It demonstrates that a proper charge exchange model will allow us to probe the ion properties remotely, including charge state, dynamics, and composition, at the interface between the cold and hot plasmas.
ISSN:0004-6361
1432-0746
DOI:10.1051/0004-6361/201527615