Dielectronic recombination (DR) of xenonlike W20+ forming W19+ has been studied experimentally at a heavy-ion storage-ring. A merged-beams method has been employed for obtaining absolute rate coefficients for electron-ion recombination in the collision energy range 0-140 eV. The measured rate coefficient is dominated by strong DR resonances even at the lowest experimental energies. At plasma temperatures where the fractional abundance of W20+ is expected to peak in a fusion plasma, the experimentally derived plasma recombination rate coefficient is over a factor of 4 larger than the theoretically-calculated rate coefficient which is currently used in fusion plasma modeling. The largest part of this discrepancy stems most probably from the neglect in the theoretical calculations of DR associated with fine-structure excitations of the W20+([Kr] 4d10 4f8) ion core.Comment: 7 pagers, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Physical Review

We have measured the widths of spectral lines from a polar coronal hole using the Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer onboard Hinode. Polar coronal holes are regions of open magnetic field and the source of the fast solar wind. We find that the line widths decrease at relatively low heights. Previous observations have attributed such decreases to systematic effects, but we find that such effects are too small to explain our results. We conclude that the line narrowing is real.The non-thermal line widths are believed to be proportional to the amplitude of Alfvén waves propagating along these open field lines. Our results suggest that Alfvén waves are damped at unexpectedly low heights in a polar coronal hole. We derive an estimate on the upper limit for the energy dissipated between 1.1 R ⊙ and 1.3 R ⊙ and find that it is enough to account for up to 70% of that required to heat the polar coronal hole and accelerate the solar wind.

We present a measurement of the energy carried and dissipated by Alfvén waves in a polar coronal hole. Alfvén waves have been proposed as the energy source that heats the corona and drives the solar wind. Previous work has shown that line widths decrease with height in coronal holes, which is a signature of wave damping, but have been unable to quantify the energy lost by the waves. This is because line widths depend on both the non-thermal velocity v nt and the ion temperature T i . We have implemented a means to separate the T i and v nt contributions using the observation that at low heights the waves are undamped and the ion temperatures do not change with height. This enables us to determine the amount of energy carried by the waves at low heights, which is proportional to v nt . We find the initial energy flux density present was 6.7±0.7×10 5 erg cm −2 s −1 , which is sufficient to heat the coronal hole and accelerate the solar wind during the 2007 -2009 solar minimum. Additionally, we find that about 85% of this energy is dissipated below 1.5 R ⊙ , sufficiently low that thermal conduction can transport the energy throughout the coronal hole, heating it and driving the fast solar wind. The remaining energy is roughly consistent with what models show is needed to provide the extended heating above the sonic point for the fast solar wind. We have also studied T i , which we found to be in the range of 1 -2 MK, depending on the ion species.

We present experimentally measured and theoretically calculated rate coefficients for the electron-ion recombination of W 18+ ([Kr]4d 10 4f 10) forming W 17+. At low electron-ion collision energies, the merged-beam rate coefficient is dominated by strong, mutually overlapping recombination resonances. In the temperature range where the fractional abundance of W 18+ is expected to peak in a fusion plasma, the experimentally derived Maxwellian recombination rate coefficient is 5 to 10 times larger than that which is currently recommended for plasma modeling. The complexity of the atomic structure of the open-4f system under study makes the theoretical calculations extremely demanding. Nevertheless, the results of the present Breit-Wigner partitioned dielectronic recombination calculations agree reasonably well with the experimental findings. This also gives confidence in the ability of the theory to generate sufficiently accurate atomic data for the plasma modeling of other complex ions.

The National Science Foundation’s Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope (DKIST) will revolutionize our ability to measure, understand, and model the basic physical processes that control the structure and dynamics of the Sun and its atmosphere. The first-light DKIST images, released publicly on 29 January 2020, only hint at the extraordinary capabilities that will accompany full commissioning of the five facility instruments. With this Critical Science Plan (CSP) we attempt to anticipate some of what those capabilities will enable, providing a snapshot of some of the scientific pursuits that the DKIST hopes to engage as start-of-operations nears. The work builds on the combined contributions of the DKIST Science Working Group (SWG) and CSP Community members, who generously shared their experiences, plans, knowledge, and dreams. Discussion is primarily focused on those issues to which DKIST will uniquely contribute.

We report ionization cross section measurements for electron impact single ionization (EISI) of Fe 11+ forming Fe 12+ and electron impact double ionization (EIDI) of Fe 11+ forming Fe 13+ . The measurements cover the center-of-mass energy range from approximately 230 eV to 2300 eV. The experiment was performed using the heavy-ion storage ring TSR located at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik in Heidelberg, Germany. The storage ring approach allows nearly all metastable levels to relax to the ground state before data collection begins. We find that the cross section for single ionization is 30% smaller than was previously measured in a single-pass experiment using an ion beam with an unknown metastable fraction. We also find some significant differences between our experimental cross section for single ionization and recent distorted wave (DW) calculations. The DW Maxwellian EISI rate coefficient for Fe 11+ forming Fe 12+ may be underestimated by as much as 25% at temperatures for which Fe 11+ is abundant in collisional ionization equilibrium. This is likely due to the absence of 3s excitation-autoionization (EA) in the calculations. However, a precise measurement of the cross section due to this EA channel was not possible because this process is not distinguishable experimentally from electron impact excitation of an n = 3 electron to levels of n 44 followed by field ionization in the charge state analyzer after the interaction region. Our experimental results also indicate that the EIDI cross section is dominated by the indirect process in which direct single ionization of an inner shell 2l electron is followed by autoionization, resulting in a net double ionization.

We have measured the energy and dissipation of Alfvénic waves in the quiet Sun. A magnetic field was used to infer the location and orientation of the magnetic field lines along which the waves are expected to travel. The waves were measured using spectral lines to infer the wave amplitude. The waves cause a non-thermal broadening of the spectral lines, which can be expressed as a non-thermal velocity v nt . By combining the spectroscopic measurements with this magnetic field model we were able to trace the variation of v nt along the magnetic field. At the footpoints of the quiet Sun loops we find that waves inject an energy flux in the range of 1.2-5.2 × 10 5 erg cm −2 s −1 . At the minimum of this range, this amounts to more than 80% of the energy needed to heat the quiet Sun. We also find that these waves are dissipated over a region centered on the top of the loops. The position along the loop where the damping begins is strongly correlated with the length of the loop, implying that the damping mechanism depends on the global loop properties rather than on local collisional dissipation.

We demonstrate that a nonthermal distribution of particles described by a kappa distribution can be accurately approximated by a weighted sum of Maxwell-Boltzmann distributions. We apply this method to modeling collision processes in kappa-distribution plasmas, with a particular focus on atomic processes important for solar physics. The relevant collision process rate coefficients are generated by summing appropriately weighted Maxwellian rate coefficients.This method reproduces the rate coefficients for a kappa distribution to an estimated accuracy of better than 3%. This is equal to or better than the accuracy of rate coefficients generated using "reverse engineering" methods, which attempt to extract the needed cross sections from the published Maxwellian rate coefficient data and then reconvolve the extracted cross sections with the desired kappa distribution. Our approach of summing Maxwellian rate coefficients is easy to implement using existing spectral analysis software. Moreover, the weights in the sum of the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution rate coefficients can be found for any value of the parameter κ, thereby enabling one to model plasmas with a timevarying κ. Tabulated Maxwellian fitting parameters are given for specific values of κ from 1.7 to 100. We also provide polynomial fits to these parameters over this entire range. Several applications of our technique are presented, including the plasma equilibrium charge state distribution (CSD), predicting line ratios, modeling the influence of electron impact multiple ionization on the equilibrium CSD of kappa-distribution plasmas, and calculating the time-varying CSD of plasmas during a solar flare.