2020
DOI: 10.3390/atoms8020021
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A Laboratory Astrophysics Problem: The Lifetime of Very Long-Lived Levels in Low-Charge Ions

Elmar Träbert

Abstract: Emission lines of singly charged ions populate many astrophysical spectra. However, the interpretation of the line intensities (usually line ratios) often depends on the transition rates of the decays of very long-lived low-lying levels. For example, the line ratio of two electric-dipole forbidden transitions in the 3s 2 3p 3 ground configuration of singly ionized sulfur (ion S + , spectrum S II) has been interpreted in terms of a density diagnostic for planetary nebulae, i.e., for densit… Show more

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Cited by 8 publications
(6 citation statements)
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“…However, the present work has contributed to clarify that computations for low-and high-energy regimes cannot be treated simultaneously with the same level of accuracy, a fact that must be taken into account in atomic database maintenance. We tend to agree with [64] that we have a laboratory astrophysics problem in hand with no foreseeable solution due to the endemic difficulties in computing, measuring, and evaluating the data products. As proposed in [16], open and fluid user-provider interactions and early data curation schemes in the research cycle are perhaps the best we can do.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 74%
See 1 more Smart Citation
“…However, the present work has contributed to clarify that computations for low-and high-energy regimes cannot be treated simultaneously with the same level of accuracy, a fact that must be taken into account in atomic database maintenance. We tend to agree with [64] that we have a laboratory astrophysics problem in hand with no foreseeable solution due to the endemic difficulties in computing, measuring, and evaluating the data products. As proposed in [16], open and fluid user-provider interactions and early data curation schemes in the research cycle are perhaps the best we can do.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 74%
“…The magnitude and scatter of the lifetimes of the two S II 3s 2 3p 3 2 D o 3/2,5/2 levels have been extensively reviewed recently to propose a viable measurement scheme to improve their accuracy to better than 10% [64]. It was mentioned therein that a 10% lifetime uncertainty would lead to a 50% emissivity-ratio uncertainty and that the current theoretical scatter is larger than 10%.…”
Section: Discussionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…For example, in astrophysics some singly charged ions give rise to (E1-forbidden) line ratios that are sensitive to the low densities in planetary nebulae. One of these is S II (P-like), involving level lifetimes on the order of 1 h [87]. With elements of the Fe group, highly charged ions of the P I isoelectronic sequence feature millisecond lifetimes and have been the subject of experiments [79].…”
Section: Mg-through Cl-like Ionsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…However, a long-lived level in an ion de-excites only once, whereas the detector noise accumulates continually, even if the detector is being cooled in order to reduce the thermal noise. Thus, optical detection is impractical for the measurement of very long level lifetimes (see discussion and references in [87]). An interesting alternative has been developed at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics at Heidelberg [128,129].…”
Section: Assorted Samplesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…[1][2][3][4] Precision measurements of forbidden transitions have multiple applications, including probing fundamental physics, [5][6][7][8][9][10] developing frequency-standard metrology, [11][12][13][14] and searching for new physics beyond the standard models. [15] Moreover, these forbidden lines contribute significantly to diagnosing laboratory and astrophysical plasmas, [1,[16][17][18][19][20] since their intensities tend to be sensitive to the density or temperature of the plasma.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%