The Spectrum of Thorium from 250 nm to 5500 nm: Ritz Wavelengths and Optimized Energy Levels
Abstract
We have made precise observations of a thorium-argon hollow cathode lamp emission spectrum in the region between 350 nm and 1175 nm using a high-resolution Fourier transform spectrometer. Our measurements are combined with results from seven previously published thorium line lists to re-optimize the energy levels of neutral, singly, and doubly ionized thorium (Th I, Th II, and Th III). Using the optimized level values, we calculate accurate Ritz wavelengths for 19, 874 thorium lines between 250 nm and 5500 nm (40, 000 cm-1 to 1800 cm-1). We have also found 102 new thorium energy levels. A systematic analysis of previous measurements in light of our new results allows us to identify and propose corrections for systematic errors in Palmer & Engleman and typographical errors and incorrect classifications in Kerber et al. We also found a large scatter with respect to the thorium line list of Lovis & Pepe. We anticipate that our Ritz wavelengths will lead to improved measurement accuracy for current and future spectrographs that make use of thorium-argon or thorium-neon lamps as calibration standards.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
- Pub Date:
- March 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0067-0049/211/1/4
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1308.5229
- Bibcode:
- 2014ApJS..211....4R
- Keywords:
-
- atomic data;
- line: identification;
- methods: data analysis;
- standards;
- techniques: radial velocities;
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - Earth and Planetary Astrophysics;
- Physics - Atomic Physics
- E-Print:
- 15 pages, 8 figures, 7 tables. Revised to remove spurious lines in tables 1 and 6. Full versions of tables 1, 5, 6 and 7 uploaded as ancillary files