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

• DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.125.243001
• Publication Date: 2020-12-08T16:56:28Z
• Authors: M. A. Leutenegger; S. Kühn; P. Micke; R. Steinbrügge; J. Stierhof; C. Shah; N. Hell; M. Bissinger; M. Hirsch; R. Ballhausen; M. Lang; C. Gräfe; S. Wipf; R. Cumbee; G. L. Betancourt-...; S. Park; V. A. Yerokhin; A. Surzhykov; W. C. Stolte; J. Niskanen; M. Chung; F. S. Porter; T. Stöhlker; T. Pfeifer; J. Wilms; G. V. Brown; J. R. Crespo Lópe...; S. Bernitt
• Keywords: General Physics; Oxygen Kalpha, transition energy, interstellar oxygen; ta114; Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph); Mathematical sciences; FOS: Physical sciences; Nuclear and Plasma Physics; 530; 01 natural sciences; Mathematical Sciences; Synchrotrons and Accelerators; Physics - Atomic Physics; Physical sciences; Engineering; 13. Climate action; Physical Sciences; 0103 physical sciences; [PHYS.ASTR] Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]; info:eu-repo/classification/ddc/530; Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics; Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)

We demonstrate a widely applicable technique to absolutely calibrate the energy scale of x-ray spectra with experimentally well-known and accurately calculable transitions highly charged ions, allowing us measure K-shell Rydberg spectrum molecular O$_2$ 8 meV uncertainty. reveal systematic $\sim$450 shift from previous literature values, settle an extraordinary discrepancy between astrophysical laboratory measurements neutral atomic oxygen, latter being calibrated against aforementioned values. Because widespread use such, now deprecated, references, our method impacts on many branches absorption spectroscopy. Moreover, it potentially reduces absolute uncertainties there below level.