[31.18] Applications of Atomic Data in X-ray Astronomy

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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[31.18] Applications of Atomic Data in X-ray Astronomy

N. S. Brickhouse (CfA)

Spectral diagnostics for collisional plasmas allow us to determine physical conditions, such as temperature, density, and elemental abundances, and to explore a range of physical processes. While laboratory astrophysics is providing critical measurements to test spectral models, benchmarking with astrophysical plasmas is also important to ensure that the models are sufficiently accurate and complete. Grating spectra of stellar coronae from Chandra and XMM-Newton are generally useful because their magnetically confined plasmas are expected to be close to collisional ionization equilibrium (CIE) conditions. Models using modern atomic data are needed to study plasmas under non-equilibrium ionization (NEI) conditions, such as shocks, accretion, winds, and cooling flows, and even to test CIE in stellar coronae. New results from X-ray spectroscopy will be presented.

This work is supported by NASA contract NAS8-39073 to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory for the Chandra X-ray Center.

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