Hydrogen Photoionization Cross Sections for Strong‐Field Magnetic White Dwarfs

Abstract

A recently developed computational scheme, based on the complex-rotation method combined with a mixed Slater-Landau basis expansion, has been applied to calculations of photoionization from atomic hydrogen ground and excited states in a strong magnetic field typical of magnetic white dwarf stars. Photoionization cross sections are presented for the twelve states 1s0 ,2 s0 ,2 p0 ,2 p−1 ,3 s � , 3p0 ,3 p−1 ,3 d � ,3 d−1 ,3 d−2 ,4 f−2 ,a nd 4f−3 with magnetic field strengths from 23.5 to 2350 MG. In most cases, good agreement has been found between the current results and the limited theoretical data in the literature. New transitions and additional field strengths are given here which will be applicable to modeling the flux and polarization spectra of magnetic white dwarfs with hydrogen-dominated atmospheres.