A benchmark of the He-like triplet for ions with $6\leq Z\leq 14$ in Maxwellian and non-Maxwellian plasmas

TL;DR

This paper evaluates and improves atomic data for He-like ion triplets across a range of elements, assessing their diagnostic reliability in different plasma conditions and benchmarking with observational data.

Contribution

It provides new accurate effective collision strengths for Ne IX and analyzes the impact of atomic data uncertainties on plasma diagnostics in Maxwellian and non-Maxwellian plasmas.

Findings

Uncertainty intervals limit temperature diagnostic effectiveness.

New collision strengths for Ne IX improve modeling accuracy.

Benchmarking confirms the relevance for stellar and tokamak plasmas.

Abstract

After an extensive assessment of the effective collision strengths available to model the He-like triplet of C V, N VI, O VII, Ne IX, Mg XI and Si XIII in collisionally dominated plasmas, new accurate effective collision strengths are reported for Ne IX. The uncertainty intervals of the density and temperature diagnostics due to the atomic data errors are also determined for both Maxwell-Boltzmann and $\kappa$ electron-energy distributions. It is shown that these uncertainty bands limit the temperature range where the temperature line-ratio diagnostic can be applied and its effectiveness to discern the electron-energy distribution type. These findings are benchmarked with Chandra and XMM-Newton spectra of stellar coronae and with tokamak measurements.