Abstract
Accurate rates for energy-degenerate l-changing collisions are needed to determine cosmological abundances and recombination. There are now several competing theories for the treatment of this process, and it is not possible to test these experimentally. We show that the H i two-photon continuum produced by astrophysical nebulae is strongly affected by l-changing collisions. We perform an analysis of the different underlying atomic processes and simulate the recombination and two-photon spectrum of a nebula containing H and He. We provide an extended set of effective recombination coefficients and updated l-changing 2s − 2p transition rates using several competing theories. In principle, accurate astronomical observations could determine which theory is correct.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2-1-2017
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stx269
Funding Information
We acknowledge support by NSF (1108928, 1109061 and 1412155), NASA (10-ATP10-0053, 10-ADAP10-0073, NNX12AH73G and ATP13-0153) and STScI (HST-AR-13245, GO-12560, HST-GO-12309, GO-13310.002-A, HST-AR-13914 and HST-AR-14286.001). MC has been supported by STScI (HST-AR-14286.001-A). PvH was funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office under contract no. BR/154/PI/MOLPLAN.
Repository Citation
Guzmán, Francisco; Badnell, N. R.; Chatzikos, Marios; van Hoof, P. A. M.; Williams, R. J. R.; and Ferland, Gary J., "Testing Atomic Collision Theory with the Two-Photon Continuum of Astrophysical Nebulae" (2017). Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications. 558.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/physastron_facpub/558
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, v. 467, issue 4, p. 3944-3950.
This article has been accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society ©: 2017 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.
The copyright holders have granted the permission for posting the article here.