bapec, bvapec, bvvapec: velocity broadened APEC thermal plasma model

A velocity- and thermally-broadened emission spectrum from collisionally-ionized diffuse gas calculated using the ATOMDB code v2.0.2. More information can be found at http://atomdb.org/ which should be consulted by anyone running this model.  This default version number can be changed by modifiying the ATOMDB_VERSION string in your Xspec.init file.

By default this model reads atomic physics continuum and line data from apec_v[version]_coco.fits and apec_v[version]_line.fits in the $HEADAS/../spectral/modelData directory. Different files can be specified by using the command xset APECROOT. There are three options. APECROOT can be set to a version number (eg 1.10, 1.2.0, 1.3.1, 2.0.1). In this case the value of APECROOT will be used to replace 2.0.2 in the name of the standard files and the resulting files will be assumed to be in the modelData directory. Alternatively, a filename root (eg apec_v1.2.0) can be given. This root will be used as a prefix for the _coco.fits and _line.fits files. Finally, if neither of these work then the model will assume that the APECROOT value gives the complete directory path, e.g.

 

       XSPEC12> xset APECROOT /foo/bar/apec_v1.2.0

 

               will use the input files

       /foo/bar/apec_v1.2.0_coco.fits

       /foo/bar/apec_v1.2.0_line.fits.

 

The bapec model uses abundances set by the abund command. The bvapec and bvvapec variants allow the user to set the abundance using additional parameters. For bapec and bvapec the abundances of the trace elements (ie Li, Be, B, F, Na, P, Cl, K, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Co, Cu, Zn) can be set using xset APEC_TRACE_ABUND. These trace element abundances can be set either to the abundance of one of the main elements or to a numerical value (relative to Solar). For instance,

XSPEC12> xset APEC_TRACE_ABUND Fe

sets trace element abundances to that of iron while

XSPEC12> xset APEC_TRACE_ABUND 1.0

sets them to Solar.

 

For the vapec model the parameters are:

 

 

par1	Plasma temperature, keV
par2	Metal abundances (He fixed at cosmic). The elements included are C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Al, Si, S, Ar, Ca, Fe, Ni. Relative abundances are set by the abund command.
par3	Redshift, z
par4	Gaussian sigma for velocity broadening (km/s)
norm	,where DA is the angular diameter distance to the source (cm), ne and nH are the electron and H densities (cm-3)

 

For the bvapec variant the parameters are as follows.

 

par1	plasma temperature, keV
par2-par14	Abundances for He, C, N, O, Ne, Mg,Al, Si, S, Ar, Ca, Fe, Ni wrt Solar (defined by the abund command)
par15	redshift, z
par16	Gaussian sigma for velocity broadening (km/s)
norm	,where DA is the angular diameter distance to the source (cm), ne and nH are the electron and H densities (cm-3)

 

For the bvvapec variant the parameters are as follows.

 

par1	plasma temperature, keV
par2-par31	Abundances for H, He, Li, Be, B, C, N, O, F, Ne, Na, Mg, Al, Si, P, S, Cl, Ar, K, Ca, Sc, Ti, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn wrt Solar (defined by the abund command)
Par32	redshift, z
Par33	Gaussian sigma for velocity broadening (km/s)
norm	,where DA is the angular diameter distance to the source (cm), ne and nH are the electron and H densities (cm-3)