AtomNeb: IDL Library for Atomic Data of Ionized Nebulae

Ashkbiz Danehkar

doi:10.21105/joss.00898

Abstract

Spectra emitted from ionized nebulae typically contain collisionally excited and recombination lines, which can be used to trace physical conditions and chemical abundances of the interstellar medium in our Galaxy and other galaxies. "AtomNeb" is a database containing atomic data stored in the Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) file format, including the data for collisionally excited and recombination lines generally observed in nebular astrophysics. The AtomNeb interface library is equipped with several application programming interface (API) functions developed in the Interactive Data Language (IDL), which can be also used in the GNU Data Language (GDL). This IDL library relies on the FITS file related IDL procedures from the IDL Astronomy User's library. The AtomNeb IDL library, together with the "proEQUIB" IDL library, can be used to perform plasma diagnostics and abundance analysis of emission lines from ionized gaseous nebulae.

Highlights

Electron densities, and ionic abundances can be determined from collisionally excited lines (CEL) by solving statistical equilibrium equations using collision strengths (Ωij) and transition probabilities (Aij) of ions
Physical conditions and chemical abundances can be calculated from recombination lines (RL) using effective recombination coefficients of ions
The AtomNeb interface library is equipped with several application programming interface (API) functions written in the Interactive Data Language (IDL) for reading the atomic data from the AtomNeb Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) files

Summary

Introduction

Electron densities, and ionic abundances can be determined from collisionally excited lines (CEL) by solving statistical equilibrium equations using collision strengths (Ωij) and transition probabilities (Aij) of ions. Physical conditions and chemical abundances can be calculated from recombination lines (RL) using effective recombination coefficients (αeff ) of ions.

Results

Conclusion