Atomic Transition Probabilities for Ultraviolet and Optical Lines of Tm ii * * Based on observations made with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which is operated by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. under NASA contract NAS5-26555 (program GO-15657). This paper also includes data gathered with the 6.5 m Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile.

Abstract

We report new branching fraction measurements for 224 ultraviolet and optical transitions of Tm ii. These transitions range in wavelength (wavenumber) from 2350 to 6417 Å (42,532–15,579 cm⁻¹) and originate in 13 odd-parity and 24 even-parity upper levels. Thirty-five of the 37 levels, accounting for 213 of the 224 transitions, are studied for the first time. Branching fractions are determined for two levels studied previously for comparison to earlier results. The levels studied for the first time are high lying, ranging in energy from 35,753 to 54,989 cm⁻¹. The branching fractions are determined from emission spectra from two different high-resolution spectrometers. These are combined with radiative lifetimes reported in an earlier study to produce a set of transition probabilities and log(gf) values with accuracy ranging from 5% to 30%. Comparison is made to experimental and theoretical transition probabilities from the literature where such data exist. These new log(gf) values are used to derive an abundance from one previously unused Tm ii line in the UV spectrum of the r-process-enhanced metal-poor star HD 222925, and this abundance is consistent with previous determinations based on other Tm ii lines.