Astrophysical tests of atomic data important for stellar Mg abundance determinations

TL;DR

This study evaluates atomic data and NLTE line formation for magnesium in stellar atmospheres, improving abundance determinations across different star types and metallicities by testing theoretical models against observations.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive assessment of atomic data and NLTE modeling for Mg I, enhancing the accuracy of magnesium abundance measurements in stars.

Findings

NLTE abundances from Mg I lines are consistent within 0.05 dex in A-type stars.

Solar Mg abundance is determined as log N_Mg/N_H = -4.45 with corrected damping constants.

Inelastic Mg+H collisions improve abundance estimates in metal-poor stars.

Abstract

Magnesium abundances of cool stars with different metallicities are important for understanding the galactic chemical evolution. This study tests atomic data used in stellar magnesium abundance analyses. We evaluate non-local thermodynamical equilibrium (NLTE) line formation for Mg I using the most up-to-date theoretical and experimental atomic data available so far and check the Mg abundances from individual lines in the Sun, four well studied A-type stars, and three reference metal-poor stars. With the adopted gf-values, NLTE abundances derived from the Mg I 4703 A, 5528 A, and Mg Ib lines are consistent within 0.05 dex for each A-type star. The same four Mg I lines in the solar spectrum give consistent NLTE abundances at $\log N_{\rm Mg}/N_{\rm H} = -4.45$, when correcting the van der Waals damping constants inferred from the perturbation theory. Inelastic Mg+H collisions as treated by Barklem, Belyaev, Spielfiedel, Guitou, and Feautrier serve as efficient thermalizing process for the statistical equilibrium of Mg I in the atmospheres of metal-poor stars. The use of the Mg+H collision data improves Mg abundance determinations for HD 84937 and HD 122563, though does not remove completely the differences between different lines.