Creating an X-ray photoionized
nebula in the laboratory
Accretion
onto compact objects leads to photoionization-dominated
X-ray spectra
The
circumstellar gas near the source of hard x-rays is highly
ionized--overionized for its temperature compared to
coronal equilibrium--and produces an x-ray spectrum dominated
by radiative recombination continua and recombination cascades.
Artist’s conception of an accretion-powered X-ray binary.
A new generation of X-ray telescopes (Chandra pictured here) is producing high-resolution
X-ray spectra for the
first time.