R-Matrix calculations for opacities.II. Photoionization and oscillator strengths of iron ions FeXVII, FeXVIII and FeXIX

Abstract

Iron is the dominant heavy element that plays an important role in radiation transport in stellar interiors. Owing to its abundance and large number of bound levels and transitions, iron ions determine the opacity more than any other astrophysically abundant element. A few iron ions constitute the abundance and opacity of iron at the base of the convection zone (BCZ) at the boundary between the solar convection and radiative zones, and are the focus of the present study. Together, FeXVII, FeXVIII and FeXIX contribute 85\% of iron ion fractions 20\%, 39\% and 26\% respectively, at the BCZ physical conditions. We report heretofore the most extensive R-matrix atomic calculations for these ions for bound-bound and bound-free transitions, the two main processes of radiation absorption. We consider wavefunction expansions with 218 target or core ion fine structure levels of FeXVIII for FeXVII, 276 levels of FeXIX for FeXVIII, in the Breit-Pauli R-matrix (BPRM) approximation, and 180 LS terms (equivalent to 415 fine structure levels) of FeXX for FeXIX calculations. These large target expansions which includes core ion excitations to n=2,3,4 complexes enable accuracy and convergence of photoionization cross sections, as well as inclusion of high lying resonances. Photoionization cross sections have obtained for all bound fine structure levels of FeXVII and FeXVIII, and for 900 bound LS states of FeXIX. Selected results demonstrating prominent characteristic features of photoionization are presented, particularly the strong Seaton PEC (photoexcitation-of-core) resonances formed via high-lying core excitations with $Δn=1$ that significantly impact bound-free opacity.