High-Precision Determination of Oxygen Kα Transition Energy Excludes Incongruent Motion of Interstellar Oxygen

Leutenegger MA, Kühn S, Micke P, Steinbrügge R, Stierhof J, Shah C, Hell N, Bissinger M, Hirsch M, Ballhausen R, Lang M, Gräfe C, Wipf S, Cumbee R, Betancourt-Martinez GL, Park S, Yerokhin VA, Surzhykov A, Stolte WC, Niskanen J, Chung M, Porter FS, Stöhlker T, Pfeifer T, Wilms J, Brown GV, Crespo López-Urrutia JR, Bernitt S (2020)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2020

Journal

Physical Review Letters American Physical Society

Book Volume: 125

Article Number: 243001

Journal Issue: 24

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.243001

Abstract

We demonstrate a widely applicable technique to absolutely calibrate the energy scale of x-ray spectra with experimentally well-known and accurately calculable transitions of highly charged ions, allowing us to measure the K-shell Rydberg spectrum of molecular O2 with 8 meV uncertainty. We reveal a systematic ∼450 meV shift from previous literature values, and settle an extraordinary discrepancy between astrophysical and laboratory measurements of neutral atomic oxygen, the latter being calibrated against the aforementioned O2 literature values. Because of the widespread use of such, now deprecated, references, our method impacts on many branches of x-ray absorption spectroscopy. Moreover, it potentially reduces absolute uncertainties there to below the meV level.

Authors with CRIS profile

Jakob Stierhof Dr.Karl-Remeis-Sternwarte Bamberg, Astronomisches Institut Matthias Bissinger Lehrstuhl für Experimentalphysik (Astroteilchenphysik) Maria Hirsch Dr.Karl-Remeis-Sternwarte Bamberg, Astronomisches Institut Ralf Ballhausen Dr.Karl-Remeis-Sternwarte Bamberg, Astronomisches Institut Melanie Lang Dr.Karl-Remeis-Sternwarte Bamberg, Astronomisches Institut Christina Gräfe Dr.Karl-Remeis-Sternwarte Bamberg, Astronomisches Institut Jörn Wilms Professur für Astronomie und Astrophysik

Involved external institutions

Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie (IRAP) FR France (FR) Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin für Materialien und Energie (HZB) DE Germany (DE) Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory US United States (USA) (US) National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) US United States (USA) (US) Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik (MPIK) / Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics DE Germany (DE) Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) / 울산과학기술원 KR Korea, Republic of (KR) Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena DE Germany (DE) Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY DE Germany (DE) Peter the Great St.Petersburg Polytechnic University (SPbPU) RU Russian Federation (RU) Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) DE Germany (DE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) US United States (USA) (US)

How to cite

APA:

Leutenegger, M.A., Kühn, S., Micke, P., Steinbrügge, R., Stierhof, J., Shah, C.,... Bernitt, S. (2020). High-Precision Determination of Oxygen Kα Transition Energy Excludes Incongruent Motion of Interstellar Oxygen. Physical Review Letters, 125(24). https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.125.243001

MLA:

Leutenegger, M. A., et al. "High-Precision Determination of Oxygen Kα Transition Energy Excludes Incongruent Motion of Interstellar Oxygen." Physical Review Letters 125.24 (2020).

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