http://arxiv.org/abs/1902.01234
Motivated by possible atomic origins of the unidentified emission line detected at 3.55 keV to 3.57 keV in a stacked spectrum of galaxy clusters (Bulbul et al. 2014), an electron beam ion trap (EBIT) was used to investigate the resonant dielectronic recombination (DR) process in highly-charged argon ions as a possible contributor to the emission feature. The He-like Ar DR-induced transition 1s$^2$2l – 1s2l3l$^\prime$ was suggested to produce a 3.62 keV photon (Bulbul et al. 2014) near the unidentified line at 3.57 keV and was the starting point of our investigation. The collisional-radiative model NOMAD was used to create synthetic spectra for comparison with both our EBIT measurements and with spectra produced with the AtomDB database/Astrophysical Plasma Emission Code (APEC) used in the Bulbul et al. (2014) work. Excellent agreement was found between the NOMAD and EBIT spectra, providing a high level of confidence in the atomic data used. Comparison of the NOMAD and APEC spectra revealed a number of missing features in the AtomDB database near the unidentified line. At an electron temperature of $T_e$ = 1.72 keV, the inclusion of the missing lines in AtomDB increases the total flux in the 3.5 keV to 3.66 keV energy band by a factor of 2. While important, this extra emission is not enough to explain the unidentified line found in the galaxy cluster spectra.
A. Gall, A. Foster, R. Silwal, et. al.
Tue, 5 Feb 19
55/86
Comments: N/A