Physics Commons^™

Study Of Highly Charged Ion Charge Exchange With Applications To X-Ray Astrophysics, Richard Mattish

All Dissertations

Highly charged ions (HCIs) exist in many hot astrophysical environments where they play an important role in plasma dynamics. Charge exchange involving highly charged ions has been shown to be responsible for many observed X-ray emissions from a variety of astrophysical sources. Proper modeling of these environments requires an understanding of this process, including the electronic structure of each ion species as well as their charge exchange cross sections. This dissertation investigates charge exchange processes with highly charged ions which are present in astrophysical environments via a laboratory-based study.

The Clemson University electron beam ion trap (CUEBIT) laboratory was utilized …