The XSTAR Atomic Database

TL;DR

The paper details the development and extensions of the XSTAR atomic database, enhancing spectral modeling capabilities for high-density plasmas in astrophysical environments, supporting upcoming X-ray telescope observations.

Contribution

It presents systematic upgrades to the XSTAR database, including handling of K lines for elements up to Z=30 and high-density plasmas, along with new reference data and related tools.

Findings

Enhanced modeling of K lines for elements Z≤30

Extensions for high-density plasma environments

Introduction of related tools ISMabs and uaDB

Abstract

We describe the atomic database of the XSTAR spectral modeling code, summarizing the systematic upgrades carried out in the past twenty years to enable the modeling of K lines from chemical elements with atomic number $Z\leq 30$ and recent extensions to handle high-density plasmas. Such plasma environments are found, for instance, in the inner region of accretion disks round compact objects (neutron stars and black holes), which emit rich information about the system physical properties. Our intention is to offer a reliable modeling tool to take advantage of the outstanding spectral capabilities of the new generation of X-ray space telescopes (e.g., XRISM and ATHENA) to be launched in the coming years. Data curatorial aspects are discussed and an updated list of reference sources is compiled to improve the database provenance metadata. Two XSTAR spin-offs -- the ISMabs absorption model and the uaDB database -- are also described.