The electron energy-loss rate due to radiative recombination

TL;DR

This paper calculates and parameterizes the electron energy-loss rates due to radiative recombination for ions up to zinc, providing data crucial for modeling photoionized plasmas and improving existing atomic databases.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive calculation of RR electron energy-loss rates for ions up to zinc, using the AUTOSTRUCTURE and ADASRR codes, and incorporates these data into plasma modeling tools.

Findings

Calculated RR electron energy-loss rates for ions up to Z=30.

Compared total RR rates with existing literature for validation.

Parameterization of electron energy-loss factors for practical use.

Abstract

For photoionized plasmas, electron energy-loss rates due to radiative recombination (RR) are required for thermal equilib- rium calculations, which assume a local balance between the energy gain and loss. While many calculations of total and/or partial RR rates are available from literature, specific calculations of associated RR electron energy-loss rates are lacking. Here we focus on electron energy-loss rates due to radiative recombination of H-like to Ne-like ions for all the elements up to and including zinc (Z = 30), over a wide temperature range. We use the AUTOSTRUCTURE code to calculate the level-resolved photoionization cross section and modify the ADASRR code so that we can simultaneously obtain level-resolved RR rate coefficients and associated RR electron energy-loss rate coefficients. The total RR rates and electron energy-loss rates of H i and He i are compared with those found in literature. Furthermore, we utilize and parameterize the weighted electron energy-loss factors (dimensionless) to characterize total electron energy-loss rates due to RR. The RR electron energy-loss data are archived according to the Atomic Data and Analysis Structure (ADAS) data class adf48. The RR electron energy-loss data are also incorporated into the SPEX code for detailed modelling of photoionized plamsas.