Recombination rate coefficients for KLL dielectronic satellite lines of Fe XXV and Ni XXVII

Abstract

The unified method for total electron–ion recombination is extended to study the dielectronic satellite (DES) lines. These lines, formed from radiative decay of autoionizing states, are highly sensitive temperature diagnostics of astrophysical and laboratory plasma sources. The computation of the unified recombination rates is based on the relativistic Breit–Pauli R-matrix method and the close coupling approximation. As such unified recombination cross sections (σRC) include both the resonant and the non-resonant background contributions and the DES spectra correspond directly to resonances in σRC. Extending the theoretical formulation developed earlier (Nahar and Pradhan 2006 Phys. Rev. A 73 062718–1) we present recombination rate coefficients for the 22 satellite lines of KLL complexes of helium-like Fe XXV and Ni XXVII. The isolated resonance approximation, commonly used throughout plasma modeling, treats these resonances essentially as bound features except for dielectronic capture into, and autoionization out of, these levels. A line profile or cross section shape is often assumed. On the other hand, by including the coupling between the autoionizing and continuum channels, the unified method gives the intrinsic spectrum of DES lines which includes not only the energies and strengths, but also the natural line or cross section shapes. A formulation is presented to derive autoionization rates from unified resonance strengths and enable correspondence with the isolated resonance approximation. While the rates compare very well with existing rates for the strong lines to <20%, the differences for weaker DES lines are larger. We also illustrate the application of the present results to the analysis of Kα complexes observed in high-temperature x-ray emission spectra of Fe XXV and Ni XXVII. There are considerable differences with previous results in the total KLL intensity for Fe XXV at temperatures below the temperature of maximum abundance in coronal equilibrium.