Energy levels, radiative rates and electron impact excitation rates for transitions in Al x★

Abstract

Energy levels, radiative rates and lifetimes are calculated among the lowest 98 levels of the n <= 4 configurations of Be-like Al X. The GRASP (General-purpose Relativistic Atomic Structure Package) is adopted and data are provided for all E1, E2, M1 and M2 transitions. Similar data are also obtained with the Flexible Atomic Code (FAC) to assess the accuracy of the calculations. Based on comparisons between calculations with the two codes as well as with available measurements, our listed energy levels are assessed to be accurate to better than 0.3%. However, the accuracy for radiative rates and lifetimes is estimated to be about 20%. Collision strengths are also calculated for which the Dirac Atomic R-matrix Code (DARC) is used. A wide energy range (up to 380 Ryd) is considered and resonances resolved in a fine energy mesh in the thresholds region. The collision strengths are subsequently averaged over a Maxwellian velocity distribution to determine effective collision strengths up to a temperature of 1.6x10$^7$ K. Our results are compared with the previous (limited) atomic data and significant differences (up to a factor of 4) are noted for several transitions, particularly those which are not allowed in jj coupling.