New radiative loss curve from updates to collisional excitation in the low-density, optically thin plasmas in SPEX

¹ Leiden Observatory, Leiden University, PO Box 9513, 2300 RA Leiden, The Netherlands
e-mail: stofanova@strw.leidenuniv.nl
² SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research, Sorbonnelaan 2, 3584 CA Utrecht, The Netherlands
³ STScI Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

Received: 18 February 2020
Accepted: 27 June 2021

Abstract

Understanding and modelling astrophysical plasmas on atomic levels while taking into account various assumptions (for example, collisional ionisation equilibrium or photoionisation equilibrium) became essential with the progress of high-resolution X-ray spectroscopy. In order to prepare for the upcoming X-ray spectroscopy missions such as XRISM or Athena, the plasma codes with their models and the atomic databases need to be up to date and accurate. One such update for the plasma code SPEX is presented in this paper where we focus on the radiative loss due to collisional excitation in the low-density, optically thin regime. We also update the atomic data for neutral hydrogen and include the contribution of the dielectronic recombination. With all these updates being implemented in SPEX we finally present the new cooling curve. We include the comparison to other plasma codes (MEKAL, APEC, Cloudy) and other atomic databases (CHIANTI, ADAS). We show how the updated cooling impacts the stability curve for photoionised plasmas and find a new stable branch.