Jacques Dubau

X-ray photoionized plasma diagnostics with helium-like ions. Application to warm absorber-emitter in active galactic nuclei

We present He-like line ratios (resonance, intercombination and forbidden lines) for totally and partially photoionized media. For solar plasmas, these line ratios are already widely used for density and temperature diagnostics of coronal (collisional) plasmas. In the case of totally and partially photoionized plasmas, He-like line ratios allow for the determination of the ionization processes involved in the plasma (photoionization with or without an additional collisional ionization process), as well as the density and the electronic temperature. With the new generation of X-ray satellites, Chandra / AXAF, XMM and Astro-E, it will be feasible to obtain both high spectral resolution and high sensitivity observations. Thus in the coming years, the ratios of these three components will be measurable for a large number of non-solar objects. In particular, these ratios could be applied to the Warm Absorber-Emitter, commonly present in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). A better understanding of the Warm Absorber connection to other regions (Broad Line Region, Narrow Line Region) in AGN (Seyferts type-1 and type-2, lowand high-redshift quasars...) will be an important key to obtaining strong constraints on unified schemes. We have calculated He-like line ratios, for Z=6, 7, 8, 10, 12 and 14, taking into account the upper level radiative cascades which we have computed for radiative and dielectronic recombinations and collisional excitation. The atomic data are tabulated over a wide range of temperatures in order to be used for interpreting a large variety of astrophysical plasmas.

Line ratios for helium-like ions: Applications to collision-dominated plasmas ?

The line ratios R and G of the three main lines of He-like ions (triplet: resonance, intercombination, forbidden lines) are calculated for C v ,N vi ,O vii ,N eix ,M gxi, and Si xiii. These ratios can be used to derive electron density ne and temperatureTe of hot late-type stellar coronae and O, B stars from high-resolution spectra obtained with Chandra (LETGS, HETGS) and XMM-Newton (RGS). All excitation and radiative processes between the levels and the eect of upper-level cascades from collisional electronic excitation and from dielectronic and radiative recombination have been considered. When possible the best experimental values for radiative transition probabilities are used. For the higher-Z ions (i.e. Ne ix ,M gxi ,S ixiii) possible contributions from blended dielectronic satellite lines to each line of the triplets were included in the calculations of the line ratios R and G for four specic spectral resolutions: RGS, LETGS, HETGS-MEG, HETGS-HEG. The influence of an external stellar radiation eld on the coupling of the 2 3 S (upper level of the forbidden line) and 2 3 P levels (upper levels of the intercombination lines) is taken into account. This process is mainly important for the lower-Z ions (i.e. C v ,N vi ,O vii) at moderate radiation temperature (Trad). These improved calculations were done for plasmas in collisional ionization equilibrium, but will be later extended to photo-ionized plasmas and to transient ionization plasmas. The values for R and G are given in extensive tables, for a large range of parameters, which could be used directly to compare to the observations.