Measurement of the 1s2l3l’ Dielectronic Recombination Emission Line in Li-Like Ar and Its Contribution to the Faint X-Ray Feature Found in the Stacked Spectrum of Galaxy Clusters
Abstract
Driven by the recent detection of an unidentified emission line previously reported at 3.55-3.57 keV in a stacked spectrum of galaxy clusters, we investigated the resonant DR process in Li-like Ar as a possible source of, or contributor to, the emission line. The Li-like transition 1s22l-1s2l3l’ was suggested to produce a 3.62 keV photon [1] near the unidentified line at 3.57 keV and was the primary focus of our investigation. Apart from the mentioned transitions, we have found other features that can be possible contributors to the emission in this region. The Electron Beam Ion Trap at NIST was used to produce and trap the highly-charged ions of argon. The energy of the quasi-monoenergetic electron beam was incremented in steps of 15 eV to scan over all of the Li-like Ar DR resonances. A Johann-type crystal spectrometer and a solid-state germanium detector were used to take x-ray measurements perpendicular to the electron beam. The DR cross sections were measured and normalized to the well-known photoionization cross sections using radiative recombination peaks in the measured spectra. Corrections for different instrument and method related effects such as charge state balance, electron beam space charge, and charge exchange have been considered. Our high-resolution crystal spectra allowed the experimental separation of features that are less than 2 eV apart. We have used a collisional radiative model NOMAD [2] aided by atomic data calculations by FAC [3] to interpret our observations and account for the corrections and uncertainties. Experimental results were compared to the AtomDB theoretical emission lines used to fit the galaxy cluster spectra containing the unidentified 3.57 keV line. These data points can be added benchmarks in the database and used to accurately interpret spectra from current x-ray satellites, including Hitomi, Chandra, and XMM-Newton x-ray observatories.[1] Bulbul E. et al., 2014, ApJ, 789, 13[2] Ralchenko Yu. et al., 2014, JQSRT, 71, 609[3] Gu M. F., 2008, Can. J. Phys. 86, 675
- Publication:
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American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts #228
- Pub Date:
- June 2016
- Bibcode:
- 2016AAS...22811616G