AAS 206th Meeting, 29 May - 2 June 2005
Session 31 Highlights in Laboratory Astrophysics
Topical Session, Wednesday, 8:30-10:00am, 10:45am-12:30pm, 2:30-4:00pm, 4:15-6:00pm, June 1, 2005, 102 D

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[31.03] Collisions of Electrons with Atoms and Ions of Astrophysical Interest

S. Tayal (Clark Atlanta University)

Electron-ion collision processes play an important role in the understanding of energy balance in astrophysical plasmas. Accurate collisional atomic data are necessary to achieve good fits to observations. Accurate representation of target wave functions that properly account for the important correlation and relaxation effects and inclusion of coupling effect including coupling to continuum are essential components of a reliable collision calculation. Comparing the computed excitation energies and oscillator strengths with experiments and other reliable calculations can check the accuracy of target wave functions. The contribution of ionization continuum can be significant for some atomic systems. The effect of coupling to continuum is included through the use of well-chosen pseudostates. The pseudostates are chosen to account for most of the dipole polarizabilities of initial and final states. Some recent results for electron impact excitation and ionization of N I, O I, and O IV will be presented. This research work is supported by NASA.


The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: stayal@cau.edu

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #2
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