Charge Exchange in the Solar System and Beyond - Livestream

Charge exchange (CX) is a conceptually simple but theoretically complex atomic process that leads to spectral line emission in the X-ray band, only discovered to be important in astronomy in the last few decades. It occurs in nearly any environment where hot plasma and cold gas interact: in the solar system, between solar wind ions and neutrals in comets and planetary atmospheres, and likely also astrophysically, in, for example, supernova remnants and galaxy clusters. CX models suffer from a lack of accurate atomic data, however, and often do not match laboratory benchmarks. This can negatively impact current and future observations, leading to an improperly subtracted X-ray foreground, incorrect assumptions about the physical properties of our astrophysical targets, and missed opportunities to harness the diagnostic utility of CX. I will discuss how CX can impact our observations from current (XMM, Chandra) and future (XRISM, Athena/X-IFU) missions, the atomic data needs for CX models, and how laboratory astrophysics is a critical component of an improved CX theory.

Speaker: Gabriele Betancourt-Martinez, IRAP/CNRS (Toulouse)

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