The past decade has seen a surge of interest in astrophysical charge exchange (CX). The impetus was the discovery of X-ray emission from comets in 1996, soon followed by the observation of CX emission in planetary atmospheres and throughout the heliosphere. Geocoronal and heliospheric CX are now recognized to contribute a considerable fraction of the soft X-ray background, and stellar-wind charge exchange is expected to occur in the astrospheres surrounding many stars. CX may also contribute to X-ray line emission in supernova remnants, the Galactic Center, and the Galactic Ridge. This article summarizes the key aspects of CX X-ray emission and its astrophysical relevance, and reviews related laboratory measurements and theoretical predictions with particular attention to spectroscopy experiments conducted on electron beam ion traps.
@article{arxiv.0708.0233,
title = {EBIT Charge-Exchange Measurements and Astrophysical Applications},
author = {B. J. Wargelin and P. Beiersdorfer and G. V. Brown},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0708.0233},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
28 pages, 26 figures (some a bit degraded from compression), accepted by Can. J. Phys. for special issue on "20 Years of EBIT Spectroscopy"