UNIFIED ELECTRON-ION RECOMBINATION RATE COEFFICIENTS OF SILICON AND SULFUR IONS

Total recombination rate coefficients for the astrophysically important Si and S ions, Si I, Si II, Si IX, S II, and SII, are obtained employing a new unified treatment developed for electron-ion recombination. The treatment incorporates both the radiative and the dielectronic recombination processes in the close coupling approximation from atomic collision theory, and the calculations are carried out using the R-matrix method as developed for the Opacity Project. All recombined states from the ground state to n = infinity, are considered. The states are divided into two groups, a low-n and a high-n group. Detailed partial photoionization cross sections into the ground state of the recombining ion, including autoionizing resonances due to coupling to excited states of the ion, are calculated for all bound states in the low-n group, and the Milne relation is used to calculate the corresponding contribution to the recombination rate coefficient. For the high-n group, collision strengths for dielectronic recombination, both detailed and resonance averaged, are obtained using the precise theory of Bell and Seaton. Total recombination rate coefficients are computed over a wide range of temperatures for practical purposes. A discussion of the atomic effects that determine the accuracy of the recombination rates is presented, in particular as a function of the increase in the eigenfunction expansion for the recombining ion, studied for e + Si x --> Si IX. Comparison is made with earlier works.