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Title: First systematic study of L-shell opacity at stellar interior temperatures

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
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  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  2. Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
  3. CEA, DAM, Arpajon (France)
  4. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  5. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  6. Prism Computational Sciences, Madison, WI (United States)
  7. Univ. of Nevada, Reno, NV (United States)
  8. The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH (United States)

The first systematic study of opacity dependence on atomic number at stellar interior temperatures is used to evaluate discrepancies between measured and modeled iron opacity [J. E. Bailey et al., Nature (London) 517, 56 (2015)]. High-temperature ( > 180 eV) chromium and nickel opacities are measured with ± 6-10% uncertainty, using the same methods employed in the previous iron experiments. The 10%-20% experiment reproducibility demonstrates experiment reliability. The overall model-data disagreements are smaller than for iron. However, the systematic study reveals shortcomings in models for density effects, excited states, and open L-shell configurations. The 30%-45% underestimate in the modeled quasicontinuum opacity at short wavelengths was observed only from iron and only at temperature above 180 eV. Thus, either opacity theories are missing physics that has nonmonotonic dependence on the number of bound electrons or there is an experimental flaw unique to the iron measurement at temperatures above 180 eV.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001; NA0003525; NA-0003525
OSTI ID:
1776755
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1546397
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-19-21766; TRN: US2209388
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 122, Issue 23; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 66 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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