CLOUDY and the High-resolution Microcalorimeter Revolution: Optical, UV, and X-Ray Spectra of One-electron Systems
Abstract :
With the launch of the XRISM microcalorimeter mission, space-based X-ray observations will achieve a record spectral resolving power of R ≡ E/∆E ∼ 1200. With this resolving power, emission features associated with fine-structure energy levels of some species will be resolved, sometimes for the first time. The plasma code, CLOUDY, was not originally designed for high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy and throughout its history did not resolve fine-structure components of Lyman lines. Here, we expand CLOUDY to resolve these fine-structure energy levels and obtain predicted X-ray spectra that match the resolution of new microcalorimeter observations. We show how the Lyman lines can be used as column density indicators in the hot X-ray emitting gas in a cluster of galaxies such as Perseus, and examine their sensitivity to external radiation fields and turbulence.
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Publication: The Astrophysical Journal, Volume 991, Issue 2, id.203, 14 pp.
DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/adfc6c
Bibcode: 2025ApJ...991..203G
Keywords: High mass x-ray binary stars; Atomic data; Radiative transfer; High energy astrophysics; X-ray binary stars; 733; 2216; 1335; 739; 1811; High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
