Andrew Conroy

Current research project

Calculation of electron-impact excitation cross-sections for neutral iron-peak species

Iron-peak elements are abundant in astrophysical plasmas because of their nuclear stability.  Information is extracted from plasmas by observation of their spectra and the interpretation of this information made possible by accurate modelling of these plasmas, which requires probabilities of atomic and molecular processes.  As part of the theoretical atomic physics group led by Cathy Ramsbottom and Connor Ballance, I carry out ab initio calculations of collision strengths for electron-impact excitation of neutral iron-peak species using the Dirac R-matrix method.  These species have been neglected because of the difficulty in describing their atomic structure using few enough basis functions for scattering calculations to be computationally feasible.  Using supercomputers such as ARCHER in Edinburgh, Hazel Hen in Stuttgart and Summit at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, we are able to push through calculations that were recently intractable.

Biography

I went to St. Mary’s Primary School and St. Ciaran’s College in Ballygawley, Tyrone, before going to QUB to study Theoretical Physics.

Research interests

• Atomic processes
• Plasma diagnostics

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