부산대학교 도서관

By implementing a large-area, gain-stabilized microcalorimeter array on an electron beam ion trap, the electron-impact excitation cross sections for the dominant x-ray lines in the Fe XVII spectrum have been measured as a function of electron energy up to greater than three times the threshold energy, establishing a benchmark for atomic calculations. The results reveal a consistent overestimation by recent calculations of the excitation cross section of the resonance transition, which is shown to be at the root of several long-standing problems associated with modeling solar and astrophysical Fe XVII spectra. The data do not show strong contributions from resonance excitation contrary to recent statements in the literature.