K. Butler

Bio: K. Butler is an academic researcher from Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. The author has contributed to research in topics: Opacity & Dipole. The author has an hindex of 3, co-authored 4 publications receiving 437 citations.

Atomic data for opacity calculations. II. Computational methods

Abstract: For pt.I see ibid., vol.20, p.6363-78 (1987). A general description of the data requirements for opacity calculations has been given in paper I. The present paper gives a detailed description of the methods being used in a collaborative effort which is referred to as the Opacity Project. The close-coupling approximation of electron-atom collision theory is used to calculate energies and wavefunctions for bound states, oscillator strengths, photoionisation cross sections and parameters for line broadening by electron impact. The computations are made using the R-matrix method together with new codes for calculating outer-region solutions and dipole integrals. Use of these techniques provides an efficient means of calculating large amounts of accurate atomic data.

Oscillator strengths for allowed transitions in neutral oxygen : an assessment of the opacity project data accuracy

Abstract: HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. OSCILLATOR STRENGTHS FOR ALLOWED TRANSITIONS IN NEUTRAL OXYGEN : AN ASSESSMENT OF THE OPACITY PROJECT DATA ACCURACY K. Butler, C. Zeippen

Iron Project: atomic data for IR lines

Abstract: The Iron Project is an international consortium dedicated to the computation of atomic data for astrophysical applications. Although the project has been mainly concerned with ions in the iron group, the earlier papers gave priority to calculations of A-values and electron impact collision strengths for infrared transitions. In the present report we include a compilation of these data which will become useful in the spectral modelling of planetary nebulae. © 2006 International Astronomical Union.

OPACITY PROJECT : RADIATIVE LIFETIMES FOR IONS IN THE Mg ISOELECTRONIC SEQUENCE

Abstract: The usability of the Opacity Project f-value dataset for the calculation of radiative lifetimes is examined in connection with ions in the Mg isoelectronic sequence. Interesting effects regarding spectroscopic and isoelectronic trends are briefly discussed. The agreement of the present lifetimes with those previously calculated by state-of-the-art methods is very good, but the comparison with ample experimental data is patchy. We conclude that the present dataset is of higher statistical accuracy than the measured values.

Atomic Data for Resonance Absorption Lines. III. Wavelengths Longward of the Lyman Limit for the Elements Hydrogen to Gallium

Abstract: This compilation revises the 1991 listing of atomic data for the lighter elements from hydrogen to gallium. The tabulation emphasizes resonance lines, i.e., lines whose lower level is the ground state, or an excited fine-structure state of the ground term, and is restricted to wavelengths longward of the H I Lyman limit at 911.753 ?. All but the very weakest known and predicted electric-dipole transitions are included, but no forbidden lines. This paper has attempted to review all data published by the end of 2002.?????The tables contain the best data available to the author on ionization potentials, level designations, vacuum and air wavelengths, lower and upper energy levels, statistical weights, transition probabilities, natural damping constants (reciprocal lifetimes), oscillator strengths, and the often used combinations of log gf and log ?f. All ion stages with relevant classified lines are included. Individual components resulting from isotope shift and hyperfine structure are listed explicitly for certain species. The accompanying text provides references, explanations for the critical selection of data, and notes indicating where new measurements or calculations are needed.?????This compilation should be particularly useful in the analysis of interstellar and quasar absorption lines and other astrophysical sites where the density of particles and radiation is low enough to excite only the lowest atomic levels. The data also are relevant to the study of stellar atmospheres, and gaseous nebulae.?????An Appendix summarizes new data relevant to the similar compilation in Paper II for the elements germanium to uranium.

The Galactic Thick Disk Stellar Abundances

Abstract: We present first results from a program to measure the chemical abundances of a large (N > 30) sample of thick disk stars with the principal goal of investigating the formation history of the Galactic thick disk. We have obtained high-resolution, high signal-to-noise spectra of 10 thick disk stars with the HIRES spectrograph on the 10 m Keck I telescope. Our analysis confirms previous studies of O and Mg in the thick disk stars, which reported enhancements in excess of the thin disk population. Furthermore, the observations of Si, Ca, Ti, Mn, Co, V, Zn, Al, and Eu all argue that the thick disk population has a distinct chemical history from the thin disk. With the exception of V and Co, the thick disk abundance patterns match or tend toward the values observed for halo stars with [Fe/H] ≈ -1. This suggests that the thick disk stars had a chemical enrichment history similar to the metal-rich halo stars. With the possible exception of Si, the thick disk abundance patterns are in excellent agreement with the chemical abundances observed in the metal-poor bulge stars, suggesting the two populations formed from the same gas reservoir at a common epoch. The principal results of our analysis are as follows. (1) All 10 stars exhibit enhanced α/Fe ratios with O, Si, and Ca showing tentative trends of decreasing overabundances with increasing [Fe/H]. In contrast, the Mg and Ti enhancements are constant. (2) The light elements Na and Al are enhanced in these stars. (3) With the exception of Ni, Cr, and possibly Cu, the iron-peak elements show significant departures from the solar abundances. The stars are deficient in Mn, but overabundant in V, Co, Sc, and Zn. (4) The heavy elements Ba and Y are consistent with solar abundances, but Eu is significantly enhanced. If the trends of decreasing O, Si, and Ca with increasing [Fe/H] are explained by the onset of Type Ia SN, then the thick disk stars formed over the course of 1 Gyr. We argue that this formation time-scale would rule out most dissipational collapse scenarios for the formation of the thick disk. Models which consider the heating of an initial thin disk—either through "gradual" heating mechanisms or a sudden merger event—are favored. These observations provide new tests of theories of nucleosynthesis in the early universe. In particular, the enhancements of Sc, V, Co, and Zn may imply overproduction during an enhanced α-rich freeze out fueled by neutrino-driven winds. Meanwhile, the conflicting trends for Mg, Ti, Ca, Si, and O pose a difficult challenge to our current understanding of nucleosynthesis in Type Ia and Type II SN. The Ba/Eu ratios favor r-process dominated enrichment for the heavy elements, consistent with the ages (tage > 10 Gyr) expected for these stars. Finally, we discuss the impact of the thick disk abundances on interpretations of the abundance patterns of the damped Lyα systems. The observations of mildly enhanced Zn/Fe imply an interpretation for the damped systems which includes a dust depletion pattern on top of a Type II SN enrichment pattern. We also argue that the S/Zn ratio is not a good indicator of nucleosynthetic processes.

ExoMol: molecular line lists for exoplanet and other atmospheres

Abstract: The discovery of extrasolar planets is one of the major scientific advances of the last two decades. Hundreds of planets have now been detected and astronomers are beginning to characterize their composition and physical characteristics. To do this requires a huge quantity of spectroscopic data most of which are not available from laboratory studies. The ExoMol project will offer a comprehensive solution to this problem by providing spectroscopic data on all the molecular transitions of importance in the atmospheres of exoplanets. These data will be widely applicable to other problems and will be used for studies on cool stars, brown dwarfs and circumstellar environments. This paper lays out the scientific foundations of this project and reviews previous work in this area. A mixture of first principles and empirically tuned quantum mechanical methods will be used to compute comprehensive and very large rotation–vibration and rotation–vibration– electronic line lists. Methodologies will be developed for treating larger molecules such as methane and nitric acid. ExoMol will rely on these developments and the use of state-of-the-art

NGC 6153: a super-metal-rich planetary nebula?

Abstract: We have obtained deep optical spectra of the planetary nebula NGC 6153, both along its minor axis and by uniformly scanning a long slit across the whole nebula. The scanned spectra, when combined with the nebular total H beta flux, yield integrated fluxes for all the lines (similar to 400) in our spectra, which are rich in strong recombination lines from C, N, O and Ne ions. A weak O vi lambda 3811 emission line from the central star has been detected, suggesting that the nucleus of NGC 6153 has a hydrogen-deficient surface. The optical data, together with the ISO LWS 43-197 mu m spectrum and the archival IUE and IRAS LRS spectra, are used to study the thermal and density structure and to derive the heavy-element abundances from lines produced by different excitation mechanisms. In all cases, the C2+/H+, N2+/H+, O2+/H+ and Ne2+/H+ abundances derived from multiple optical recombination lines (ORLs) are consistently higher, by about a factor of 10, than the corresponding values deduced from optical, UV or infrared (IR) collisionally excited lines (CELs), regardless of the excitation energies or critical densities of the latter. The agreement between the temperature-sensitive optical forbidden lines and the temperature-insensitive IR fine-structure lines rules out temperature fluctuations as the cause of the large difference between the ORL and CEL abundances.We present the results of a new calculation of recombination coefficients for [O II] which lead to good agreement between the observed and predicted [O II] lambda lambda 7320, 7330 forbidden line intensities if these lines are solely excited by recombination at the Balmer jump temperature. Recombination excitation is also found to be important in exciting the [N ii] lambda 5754 line, which, if unaccounted for, would lead to an overestimated [N ii] temperature from the observed (lambda 6548+lambda 6584)/lambda 5754 ratio. Analysis of a number of C ii lines arising from levels as high as 7g in the recombination ladder reveals excellent agreement between their reddening-corrected relative intensities and those predicted by recombination theory. Spatial analysis of the long-slit spectra taken along the nebular minor axis yields a varying [O iii] temperature, whereas the hydrogen Balmer jump temperature of 6000 K is approximately constant across the nebula, and is 2000-3000 K lower than the [O iii] temperature. The observed high-n Balmer line decrement indicates that the hydrogen lines arise from material having an electron density of 2000(-1000)(+2000) cm(-3), consistent with the optical and IR forbidden-line density diagnostics, which yield average line-of-sight electron densities along the minor axis varying between 2000 and 4000 cm(-3).While the He/H ratio mapped by He I and He ii recombination lines is constant within 5 per cent across the nebula, the C2+/H+ and O2+/H+ recombination-line abundances decrease by a factor of 2-3 over a radius of 15 arcsec from the centre, pointing to the presence of abundance gradients. We consider a variety of hypotheses to account for the observed behaviour of the various thermal, density and abundance diagnostics. Empirical nebular models containing two components with differing densities and temperatures are able to account for many of the observed patterns, but only if one of the components is significantly hydrogen-deficient. One such model, which gives a good fit to the observed line intensities and patterns, has 500-K H-depleted material, presumed to be evaporating from dense neutral inclusions, embedded in 9500-K material with 'normal' abundances. An alternative model, which appears more physically plausible on a number of grounds, has high-density (2x10(6) cm(-3)), fully ionized, H-deficient knots embedded in the 'normal' component, although this model fails to account adequately for the observed low (6000 K) hydrogen Balmer jump temperature. However, the observed fact that the ORLs and CELs yield heavy-element abundance ratios that are identical within the uncertainties finds no obvious explanation in the context of H-deficient knot models.