Resonant Auger Destruction and Iron K-Alpha Spectra in Compact X-ray Sources

Abstract

We examine the effects of resonant Auger destruction in modifying the intensities and flux distributions of K-alpha spectra from iron L-shell ions. Applications include X-ray irradiated stellar winds in X-ray binaries and accretion disk atmospheres. Using detailed atomic models, we find that resonant Auger destruction is selective, in that only a subset of the emitted K-alpha lines is highly attenuated. We also show that that the local excitation conditions can have a dramatic effect on the K-alpha emissivity spectrum.