Atomic data from the Iron Project.XLIV. Transition probabilities and line ratios for Fe VI with fluorescent excitation in planetary nebulae

Fe II radiative lifetimes were measured applying the time-resolved nonlinear laser-induced fluoresence technique. We investigated 21 levels of up to 47000 1/cm. The uncertainties are typically 2-3%. The lifetimes provide an improved absolute scale to our branching fractions which were measured with a Fourier transform spectrometer and a high-resolution grating spectrometer and which have been published earlier. We report absolute transition probabilities of 140 Fe II lines in...

We present a list of interstellar absorption lines in the direction of HD 37061 in the M 43 nebula. Some of the absorption lines arise from atomic excited levels that are uncommon in interstellar clouds. The excited levels of Fe II are populated by fluorescence. We found a large number of H2 molecular absorption lines arising from vibrationally excited levels. The ortho/para H2 ratio is equal to 2.7. The H2 rotational temperature of vibrational levels 1 - 5 exceeds 2000 K.

The IRON Project, initiated in 1991, aims at two main objectives, i) study the characteristics of and calculate large-scale high accuracy data for atomic radiative and collisional processes, and ii) application in solving astrophysical problems. It focuses on the complex iron and iron-peak elements commonly observed in the spectra of astrophysical plasmas. The present report will illustrate the characteristics of the dominant atomic process of photoionization that have been e...

Since the last IAU symposium on planetary nebulae (PNe), several deep spectroscopic surveys of the relatively faint optical recombination lines (ORLs) emitted by heavy element ions in PNe and H II regions have been completed. New diagnostic tools have been developed thanks to progress in the calculations of basic atomic data. Together, they have led to a better understanding of the physical conditions under which the various types of emission lines arise. The studies have str...

Iron is the dominant heavy element that plays an important role in radiation transport in stellar interiors. Owing to its abundance and large number of bound levels and transitions, iron ions determine the opacity more than any other astrophysically abundant element. A few iron ions constitute the abundance and opacity of iron at the base of the convection zone (BCZ) at the boundary between the solar convection and radiative zones, and are the focus of the present study. Toge...

Thirteen transitions within the ground 3d^2 configuration of Fe VII are identified in ultraviolet and optical spectra of the symbiotic star RR Telescopii obtained with the STIS instrument of the Hubble Space Telescope. The line fluxes are compared with theoretical data computed with the recent atomic data of K.A. Berrington et al., and high resolution optical spectra from VLT/UVES are used to identify blends. Seven branching ratios are measured, with three in good agreement w...

Ab initio theoretical calculations are reported for the electric (E1) dipole allowed and intercombination fine structure transitions in Fe V using the Breit-Pauli R-matrix (BPRM) method. We obtain 3865 bound fine structure levels of Fe V and $1.46 x 10^6$ oscillator strengths, Einstein A-coefficients and line strengths. In addition to the relativistic effects, the intermediate coupling calculations include extensive electron correlation effects that represent the complex conf...

Our ability to model the shapes and strengths of iron lines in the solar spectrum is a critical test of the accuracy of the solar iron abundance, which sets the absolute zero-point of all stellar metallicities. We use an extensive 463-level Fe atom with new photoionisation cross-sections for FeI as well as quantum mechanical calculations of collisional excitation and charge transfer with neutral hydrogen; the latter effectively remove a free parameter that has hampered all pr...

The precise analysis of properties of planetary nebulae is strongly dependent on good models for the stellar ionizing spectrum. Observations in the UV - X-ray wavelength range as well as NLTE model atmosphere calculations of spectra of their exciting stars have shown that neither blackbody fluxes nor "standard" NLTE atmosphere models which are composed out of hydrogen and helium only are good approximations. Strong differences between synthetic spectra from these compared to ...

We present spectrophotometry of 12 Galactic and 3 Magellanic Cloud planetary nebulae (PNe). Nine of the Galactic PNe were observed by scanning the slit across the PN. We use the fluxes of collisionally excited lines (CELs) to derive electron densities (D's) and temperatures (T's), and ionic abundances. We find that the D's derived from optical CEL ratios are systematically higher than those derived from the ratios of the IR fine-structure (FS) lines of [OIII], indicating the ...