Abstract
Atomic cascades are ubiquitous in nature and they have been explored within very different scenarios, from precision measurements to the modeling of astrophysical spectra, and up to the radiation damage in biological matter. However, up to the present, a quantitative analysis of these cascades often failed because of their inherent complexity. Apart from utilizing the rotational symmetry of atoms and a proper distinction of different physical schemes, a hierarchy of useful approaches is therefore needed in order to keep cascade computations feasible. We here suggest a classification of atomic cascades and demonstrate how they can be modeled within the framework of the Jena Atomic Calculator. As an example, we shall compute within a configuration-average approach the stepwise decay cascade of atomic magnesium, following a 1s inner-shell ionization, and simulate the corresponding (final) ion distribution. Our classification of physical scenarios (schemes) and the hierarchy of computational approaches are both flexible to further refinements as well as to complex shell structures of the atoms and ions, for which the excitation and decay dynamics need to be modeled in good detail.
Highlights
If atoms or ions are initially excited into the continuum of the higher charge state, they often stabilize via various processes towards different ground configurations
Atomic cascades are ubiquitous in nature and they have been explored within very different scenarios, from precision measurements to the modeling of astrophysical spectra, and up to the radiation damage in biological matter
We propose a classification of atomic cascades and shall discuss, in detail, how they can be modeled within the framework of JAC
Summary
If atoms or ions are initially excited into the continuum of the higher (or even several times higher) charge state, they often stabilize via various processes towards different ground configurations. This complexity arises first of all from the large number of decay paths, whose relative importance has been found difficult to estimate in advance To systematically model such cascades, we make use of JAC, the Jena Atomic Calculator [21] that supports the calculation of different atomic shell structures and processes. Each configuration generally comprises (one or) several levels that can be temporarely occupied by a cascade owing to different fine-structure transitions, i.e., due to the electron or photon emission and, the decay of levels from some energetically high-lying configuration. These fine-structure transitions form the observed (line) spectra and will be briefly referred to as lines below.
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