Hartmut Holweger

The photospheric barium spectrum: Solar abundance and collision broadening of Baii lines by hydrogen

AbstractA study of the solar Ba ii spectrum leads to a solar abundance of barium of logεba = = 2.11±0.12, on the scale logεh = 12. The observed asymmetry of the resonance line λ4554 is consistent with an isotopic abundance ratio equal to the terrestrial one. The meteoritic Ba/Si abundance ratio found in carbonaceous chondrites appears to exceed the solar ratio by 0.1 to 0.2 dex (Section 5).The broadening by collisions with hydrogen atoms is determined from the solar spectrum (Section 4). Damping half-widths, γh, of the three stronger Ba ii lines turn out to be larger by a factor of about 3.0 than predicted from pure van der Waals interaction of dipoles. Departures from LTE appear to be present in the cores of the resonance lines and of the lines arising from the metastable 5D levels (Section 6). The equivalent widths, however, remain practically unaffected.Equivalent widths of neutral barium lines are predicted and some new identifications of photospheric Ba i lines are suggested (Section 7).

Numerical simulation of the three-dimensional structure and dynamics of the non-magnetic solar chromosphere

Numerical simulation of the three-dimensional structure and dynamics of the non-magnetic solar chromosphere

Center-to-limb analysis of the solar oxygen lines

Several lines of neutral oxygen observed at various positions on the solar disk were used to study the influence of (1) the temperature distribution, (2) the velocity field, and (3) the damping on the line profiles and the abundance of oxygen in the photosphere. Theoretical profiles were calculated on the basis of four different model atmospheres in LTE. It was found that the model proposed by Holweger (1967) best reproduced the center-to-limb observations of the lines studied. The weighted mean of the oxygen abundance turned out to be log ɛO = 8.83 on the basis of log ɛH = 12.00.

Five-minute oscillations of solar equivalent widths

Equivalent widths of weak and moderately strong Fraunhofer lines observed in an area roughly 3500 × 10000 km in extent are found to show small variations of the order of 1 mÅ, on a time scale of minutes. The dependence of amplitude on line strength and excitation closely fits that predicted for a compressional disturbance associated with temperature variations that manifest themselves in the equivalent widths. The rms amplitude is about 20K near τ5000 = 10-2.These equivalent width variations frequently exhibit a 5-min periodicity and are accompanied by prominent oscillations of velocity. Power spectra of both quantities closely resemble each other and demonstrate that most of the equivalent width variations in the range 200 to 500 s are due to the thermal response of the atmosphere to 5-min oscillations.A systematic phase lag between velocity and equivalent width is observed, in the sense that temperature leads velocity by an average angle of 120°. This deviates significantly from 90° valid for standing adiabatic waves, showing that in the line-forming layers, τ5000 ≈ 10-2, the 5-min oscillations are markedly affected by radiative exchange.The observed phase lag implies a radiative decay time of ≈40 s, a value which agrees with modelatmosphere predictions for the line-forming layers. Since the observed wave trains frequently show constant amplitude over a much longer time, a continuous feed-back of energy seems to occur.

The solar abundance of tungsten

Recent measurements of Wi oscillator strengths (Obbarius and Kock, 1982) lead to a solar photospheric abundance of tungsten, log ɛW = 1.06 ± 0.15 on the scale log ɛH = 12. The solar W/Si abundance ratio, 0.32 W atoms/106 Si, coincides with that found in carbonaceous chrondrites. Implications for solar-system r-processes abundances are pointed out.