Testing the existence of non-Maxwellian electron distributions in H II regions after assessing atomic data accuracy
- Permanent address: Centro de Física, Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (IVIC), P.O. Box 20632, Caracas 1020A, Venezuela. (Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of)
The classic optical nebular diagnostics [N II], [O II], [O III], [S II], [S III], and [Ar III] are employed to search for evidence of non-Maxwellian electron distributions, namely κ distributions, in a sample of well-observed Galactic H II regions. By computing new effective collision strengths for all these systems and A-values when necessary (e.g., S II), and by comparing with previous collisional and radiative data sets, we have been able to obtain realistic estimates of the electron-temperature dispersion caused by the atomic data, which in most cases are not larger than ∼10%. If the uncertainties due to both observation and atomic data are then taken into account, it is plausible to determine for some nebulae a representative average temperature while in others there are at least two plasma excitation regions. For the latter, it is found that the diagnostic temperature differences in the high-excitation region, e.g., T{sub e} (O III), T{sub e} (S III), and T{sub e} (Ar III), cannot be conciliated by invoking κ distributions. For the low-excitation region, it is possible in some, but not all, cases to arrive at a common, lower temperature for [N II], [O II], and [S II] with κ ≈ 10, which would then lead to significant abundance enhancements for these ions. An analytic formula is proposed to generate accurate κ-averaged excitation rate coefficients (better than 10% for κ ≥ 5) from temperature tabulations of the Maxwell-Boltzmann effective collision strengths.
- OSTI ID:
- 22357124
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 785, Issue 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0004-637X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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