J/ApJ/804/76ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/ApJ/804/76doi:10.26093/cds/vizier.18040076CDSKisielius R.Kulkarni V.P.Ferland G.J.Bogdanovich P.Som D.,Lykins M.L.2018-01-30T07:18:08Z2015-09-11T12:21:21ZCDS support team

CDS, Observatoire de Strasbourg, 11 rue de l'Universite, F-67000 Strasbourg, France

cds-question@unistra.fratomic-physicsDamped Ly{alpha} (DLA) and sub-DLA absorbers in quasar spectra provide the most sensitive tools for measuring the element abundances of distant galaxies. The estimation of abundances from absorption lines depends sensitively on the accuracy of the atomic data used. We have started a project to produce new atomic spectroscopic parameters for optical and UV spectral lines using state-of-the-art computer codes employing a very broad configuration interaction (CI) basis. Here we report our results for ZnII, an ion used widely in studies of the interstellar medium (ISM) as well as DLAs and sub-DLAs. We report new calculations of many energy levels of Zn II and the line strengths of the resulting radiative transitions. Our calculations use the CI approach within a numerical Hartree-Fock framework. We use both nonrelativistic and quasi-relativistic one-electron radial orbitals. We have incorporated the results of these atomic calculations into the plasma simulation code Cloudy and applied them to a lab plasma and examples of a DLA and a sub-DLA. Our values of the ZnII {lambda}{lambda}2026,2062 oscillator strengths are higher than previous values by 0.10dex. The Cloudy calculations for representative absorbers with the revised Zn atomic data imply ionization corrections lower than calculated earlier by 0.05dex. The new results imply that Zn metallicities should be lower by 0.1dex for DLAs and by 0.13-0.15dex for sub-DLAs than in past studies. Our results can be applied to other studies of ZnII in the Galactic and extragalactic ISM.2015ApJ...804...76Khttps://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/ApJ/804/76CatalogResearchIsServedByTAP VizieR generic servicerelated-toJ/ApJ/780/76 : SII transition line strengths (Kisielius+, 2014)J/MNRAS/435/482 : DLA system from SDSS DR5 (Jorgenson+, 2013)J/A+A/556/A141 : ESO-UVES Advanced Data Products (EUADP) sample (Zafar+, 2013)J/A+A/547/L1 : SDSS-III DR9 DLA catalogue (Noterdaeme+, 2012)J/ApJ/755/89 : Metallicities of damped Ly{alpha} systems (Rafelski+, 2012)J/ApJ/700/1299 : Gas-phase element depletions in the ISM (Jenkins, 2009)J/ApJ/661/88 : Zn measurements in sub-DLAs and DLAs QSOs (Kulkarni+, 2007)J/ApJ/648/L97 : 2 SDSS QSOs super-Lyman limit systems (Prochaska+ 2006)J/ApJ/635/123 : The SDSS-DR3 damped Ly{alpha} survey (Prochaska+, 2005)J/ApJ/543/552 : z>3 DLA systems (Storrie-Lombardi+, 2000)http://www.nist.gov/pml/data/asd.cfm : NIST atomic spectra databasehttps://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.htmlhttps://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/804/76https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/804/76http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/ApJ/804/76https://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/804/76https://vizier.iucaa.in/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/804/76http://vizieridia.saao.ac.za/viz-bin/votable?-source=J/ApJ/804/76GETtext/xml+votablehttps://tapvizier.cds.unistra.fr/TAPVizieR/tapdefaultJ/ApJ/804/76/table1Comparison of calculated ZnII level energies and their percentage deviations with experimental data from the NIST databaseStateConfigurationphys.atmol.configurationrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintN[1/27] Level indexphys.atmol.qnint2J+1[2/10] 2J+1 valuephys.atmol.qnintE(NIST)[0/114834] Experimental energy from NIST databasecm**-1phys.energy;phys.atmol.leveldoubleE0[0/114759] our HF data with a complete CI expansion using TRO (CI_TRO_) (1)cm**-1phys.energy;phys.atmol.levelintdE0[-1.1/1.9]? Percentage deviations of HF data from the experimental energy%stat.errorfloatnullableE1[0/115085] our HF data from the reduced CI expansion calculation (CI^red1^_TRO_)cm**-1phys.energy;phys.atmol.levelintdE1[-2.8/2.5]? Percentage deviations of the reduced CI data from the observed energy%stat.errorfloatnullableE2[0/117659] our HF data from the reduced CI expansion calculation (CI^red2^_TRO_)cm**-1phys.energy;phys.atmol.levelintdE2[-0.7/6.2]? Percentage deviations of the reduced CI data from the observed energy%stat.errorfloatnullableJ/ApJ/804/76/table2Transition line strengths S for ZnII determined in the CI_TRO_ approximationrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintTypeTransition line type: E1/E2/E3 or M1/M2meta.notecharN0[1/26] Lower level indexphys.atmol.qnintN1[2/27] Upper level indexphys.atmol.qnintSTransition line strength in atomic unitsspect.line.intensitydoubleJ/ApJ/804/76/table4Effective collision strengths for the electron-impact excitation of ZnII at 14 selected temperatures determined in the plane-wave Born approximationrecnoRecord number assigned by the VizieR team. Should Not be used for identification.meta.recordintN0[1/26] Lower level indexphys.atmol.qnintN1[2/27] Upper level indexphys.atmol.qnintCS400Effective collision strength at T=4.0x10^2^Kphys.atmol.collStrengthdoubleCS800Effective collision strength at T=8.0x10^2^Kphys.atmol.collStrengthdoubleCS2kEffective collision strength at T=2.0x10^3^Kphys.atmol.collStrengthdoubleCS4kEffective collision strength at T=4.0x10^3^Kphys.atmol.collStrengthdoubleCS8kEffective collision strength at T=8.0x10^3^Kphys.atmol.collStrengthdoubleCS20kEffective collision strength at T=2.0x10^4^Kphys.atmol.collStrengthdoubleCS40kEffective collision strength at T=4.0x10^4^Kphys.atmol.collStrengthdoubleCS80kEffective collision strength at T=8.0x10^4^Kphys.atmol.collStrengthdoubleCS200kEffective collision strength at T=2.0x10^5^Kphys.atmol.collStrengthdoubleCS400kEffective collision strength at T=4.0x10^5^Kphys.atmol.collStrengthdoubleCS800kEffective collision strength at T=8.0x10^5^Kphys.atmol.collStrengthdoubleCS2MEffective collision strength at T=2.0x10^6^Kphys.atmol.collStrengthdoubleCS4MEffective collision strength at T=4.0x10^6^Kphys.atmol.collStrengthdoubleCS8MEffective collision strength at T=8.0x10^6^Kphys.atmol.collStrengthdouble