Sixth International Colloquium on Atomic Spectra and Oscillator Strengths (ASOS 6)

Abstract

These proceedings contain the written versions of invited talks presented at the Sixth International Colloquium on AtomicSpectra and Oscillator Strengths (ASOS 6), which was held at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, fromAugust 9 through August 13, 1998. A separate volume, to be published as a technical report of the University of Victoria,will contain the extended abstracts of the poster papers given at this conference.The colloquium was attended by about 80 registered participants, and twenty-four invited talks and 60 contributed papers(mostly as posters) were presented. This meeting was smaller than the last two of this conference series at Meudon, France,in 1995 and at Gaithersburg, MD USA, in 1992, mainly because many Eastern European scientists, usually a strong presence,were unable to come.The invited talks covered seven main subject areas: laboratory studies of complex spectra and measurements of oscillatorstrengths; advances in atomic structure theory; precision calculations and experiments on neutral helium; astrophysicalspectroscopy, both with ground-based observations as well as with the on-going and upcoming space missions; scientificand technological utilizations of atomic and ionic spectra, mainly for diagnostics and modeling purposes; and reviewsof new and extended spectroscopic databases.This series of triennial international conferences started fifteen years ago with a meeting at Lund University, Sweden. It hasconsiderably changed and evolved since then, featuring major new trends in spectroscopic research as well as coveringthe ever larger and more demanding applications and needs of spectroscopic data users. But its main objective, to providea forum for discussions and a dialogue between data producers and users, has remained essentially unchanged. This internationalcolloquium series has indeed been quite successful at this goal, and has attracted changing groups of producersand users as new topics and new applications have come to the forefront.At the Victoria meeting, some of the 'hot' topics have been the ultra-high precision spectroscopy of neutral helium, furtheradvances in sophisticated atomic structure theory, the rapid shift of laboratory work to the powerful Fourier TransformSpectroscopy, new space astronomy applications which are increasingly shifting to the VUV and X-ray regions; newhigh-technology applications; and vastly expanded spectroscopic databases utilizing the convenience of the internet.The two sessions on 'precision spectroscopy of helium' and 'laboratory spectroscopy of complex spectra' were dedicated toWilliam C Martin of the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA (formerly the NationalBureau of Standards) on the occasion of his retirement after 41 years of outstanding service to atomic spectroscopy. Billhas led the Atomic Spectroscopy group at NIST/NBS for the last 36 years and has made major contributions to the subjectsof the two above named sessions. His work on the helium spectrum and his data volume on the energy levels of rare-earthelements are sure to have major impact on atomic spectroscopy for a long time to come. Furthermore, he has contributedgreatly to the design and development of the new NIST atomic spectra database on the Internet.Finally, we like to emphasize that no less than half the invited speakers are from a new generation of producers and users, andwe therefore feel confident about the future of this International Colloquium which is scheduled to take place again in 2001 atthe Queen's University in Belfast.Acknowledgements: We would like to thank the members of the International Program and the Organizing Committees fortheir many valuable suggestions and assistance in the preparation of the conference. We especially want to express our deepgratitude to Professor Jeremy Tatum of the University of Victoria, who has tirelessly and imaginatively responded to andaccommodated numerous special requests of conference participants and has thus contributed greatly to the smooth runningof the meeting. We also gratefully acknowledge the competent assistance of Patricia McGuire and the University of Victoriaconference management team for their expert organizational skills.We thank Arlene Robey, Sharon Reeves and Suzanne Sullivan, all of the National Institute of Standards and Technology(NIST), Gaithersburg, MD for their competent assistance in editing these proceedings. Finally we thank the sponsors for their financial support of the conference.