High-temperature behaviour of the helium-like K ALPHA G ratio: the effect of improved recombination rate coefficients for calcium, iron, and nickel

It is shown that above the temperature of maximum abundance, recombination rates into the excited states of He-like ions that are calculated using earlier, more approximate methods differ markedly from rates obtained from recent distorted-wave and R-Matrix calculations (unified recombination rate coefficients) for Ca, Fe, and Ni. The present rates lead to G ratios that are greatly lower than those resulting from the more approximate rates in previous works, by up to a factor of six at high electron temperatures. Excellent agreement between the distorted-wave and the R-Matrix rates, as well as excellent agreement in the G ratios calculated from them, provides support for the accuracy of these new values which have a broad applicability to the modelling and interpreting of X-ray spectra from a variety of astrophysical and laboratory sources.