Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-27gpq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T15:02:11.069Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

1 - X-ray lines and edges

from Appendices

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

Randall K. Smith
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Keith Arnaud
Affiliation:
University of Maryland, College Park
Randall Smith
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Aneta Siemiginowska
Affiliation:
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Get access

Summary

The X-ray waveband contains atomic and ionic transitions for nearly all astrophysically abundant elements – with the notable exception of H and He. These arise primarily from transitions involving electrons in the 1s shell but for heavier elements (i.e. Fe, Ni), there are transitions involving higher shells as well. This appendix contains a short discussion of spectroscopic notation combined with information on a selection of particularly strong transitions, including those from hydrogen-like and helium-like ions, Fe XVII–Fe XXIV, as well as fluorescent transitions from neutral atoms and ionization edges for all of the abundant elements. More information about atomic data useful for X-ray astronomy can be found at http://www.atomdb.org.

Spectroscopic notation

A complete discussion of spectroscopic notation is beyond the scope of this handbook; we suggest the short but highly informative text by Herzberg (1945) for a more detailed review; another useful source is the X-ray Data Booklet published by the Center for X-ray Optics and Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (http://xdb.lbl.gov). It should be noted that X-ray astronomy is rife with poorly used spectroscopic terminology, so following the form used by an earlier refereed paper does not guarantee proper usage.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×