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# Magnetic flaring in the pre-main sequence Sun and implications for the early solar system

## 1 Introduction

A large body of meteoritic evidence indicates that violent high-energy processes occurred in or near the solar nebula during the formation of the solar system. The prevalence of chondrules requires sudden heating of solid material to $`T2000`$ K, likely produced by shocks, lightning or radiation in the solar nebula (see reviews in Hewins, Jones, & Scott, 1996; Jones et al., 2000). Anomalous abundances of elemental isotopes are seen in chondrules and inclusions of the most pristine carbonaceous chondrites (see review by Goswami & Vanhala, 2000). Most puzzling are the high abundances of daughter products of short-lived nuclides like 41Ca, 26Al and 53Mn. These nuclides are often attributed to the injection of freshly produced nuclear products into the nebula from stellar sources: a supernova remnant or winds from an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) or Wolf-Rayet star (Cameron & Truran, 1977; Wasserburg et al., 1994; Arnould, Paulus, & Meynet, 1997).

An alternative explanation involves the production of unusual nuclear species within the nebula by spallation reactions from energetic (MeV) protons and ions originating in magnetic reconnection flares. Energetic particles are currently produced in the solar system by flares above the Sun’s surface, but with fluences far below those required by local irradiation models of short-lived meteoritic nuclides. In early calculations (e.g. Hoyle, Fowler & Greenstein, 1962; Clayton, Dwek, & Woosley, 1977; Lee, 1978), local irradiation models had difficulty producing nuclides in the observed abundances. Various problems have been addressed in recent studies that, for example, investigate spallation principally in the circumstellar disk corona, consider production of meteoritic isotopes such as 138La and 10Be in addition to well-known isotopes such as 26Al and 41Ca, and examine the effects of 3He-rich flares and self-shielding by chondrule rim material (Clayton & Jin, 1995; Lee et al., 1998; Gounelle et al., 2001; Goswami, Marhas, & Sahijpal, 2001). Spallogenic isotope production by cosmic rays pervading star forming regions has also been considered (Clayton, 1994), but an early report of $`\gamma `$ray lines in the Orion region supporting this model has been withdrawn (Bloemen et al., 1999).

Some meteoritic abundance anomalies are more plausibly explained by local spallation of solar nebular solids than by injection of stellar nucleosynthetic material. 21Ne is readily produced by proton spallation reactions on common rock-forming elements like Mg and Si, and is present with high abundance in certain grains of carbonaceous chondrites (e.g. Caffee et al., 1987; Rao et al., 1997; Caffee & Nishiizumi, 2001, see review by Woolum & Hohenberg 1993). A spallation origin is supported by high particle track densities in the crystalline grain. This combination of evidence implies that the grains were subject to high proton fluences while free-floating in the nebula prior to meteoritic compaction. Similarly, the spallogenic product 10Be has recently been reported in the Allende meteorites consistent with a local irradiation model (McKeegan et al., 2000), although production in an anisotropic jet during a supernova explosion is also possible (Cameron, 2001). The recent discovery of 36Ar and other noble gases in silicate chondrites also points to an enhanced solar wind prior to chondrule melting (Okazaki et al., 2001).

In addition to spallation, magnetic reconnection flares produce sudden increases in the photon flux and (unobserved but plausible by analogies with solar flares) shocks within the solar nebula environment. These may be responsible for the flash melting of chondrules (Levy & Araki, 1989; Taylor, 1992; Shu et al., 1997, 2001). Although local irradiation and shock models often call for enhanced magnetic activity in the early Sun, the size, location and geometry of the flaring magnetic fields is uncertain. Field lines may be rooted in the proto-solar surface as in the contemporary Sun (e.g. Feigelson, Giampapa, & Vrba, 1991), may link the proto-Sun to the nebula at the corotation radius at $`10`$ R (e.g. Shu et al., 1997; Montmerle et al., 2000; Birk et al., 2000), may erupt from an turbulent magnetohydrodynamical (MHD) nebula (e.g. Levy & Araki, 1989; Romanova et al., 1998; Priest & Forbes, 2000, 455ff), or may be produced by interactions between the solar wind and the nebula at planetary distances (Cameron, 1995). The magnetic geometry issue will be discussed here in §6.3.

Astronomical studies of young solar analogs can provide valuable insights into these issues. For example, although injection freshly synthesized material from a passing AGB star is an attractive explanation for the origin of several short-lived nuclides (Busso, Gallino, & Wasserburg, 1999), the chances are very small that an AGB star passes sufficiently close to any given molecular cloud for this mechanism to operate (Kastner & Myers, 1994). Triggering by supernova shocks does occur, but may affect only a fraction of star forming sites (Adams & Laughlin, 2001).

On the other hand, a large body of astronomical studies of young solar-type stars supports the idea that high levels of magnetic flaring are present in virtually all stars through all stages of pre-main sequence evolution (see review by Feigelson & Montmerle, 1999). This provides an empirical basis to local spallation models for meteoritic isotopic anomalies. X-ray emission from pre-main sequence low-mass stars is enhanced $`10^110^4`$ times above levels seen in the Sun today, exhibiting high plasma temperatures ($`T10^710^8`$ K) and rapid high-amplitude variability indicative of violent magnetic reconnection events. Nonthermal radio continuum flaring has been detected in a smaller fraction of young stars (see review by André, 1996). This is demonstrably gyrosynchrotron emission from MeV electrons spiraling in magnetic fields, direct evidence for particle acceleration to MeV energies in pre-main sequence systems. Extensive evidence (photometric starspots, Doppler imaging, Zeeman line splitting, chromospheric indicators, etc.) has also accrued indicating that T Tauri stars have highly magnetized stellar surfaces. The link between X-ray flaring in T Tauri stars and meteoritic issues has been discussed by Feigelson (1982), Feigelson et al. (1991), Shu et al. (1997), Feigelson & Montmerle (1999) and Priest & Forbes (2000, 455ff).

Past studies of magnetic activity in analogs of the early Sun have suffered practical limitations. Some individual $`1`$ M young stars have been studied in detail, such as V410 Tau or EK Dra (e.g. Herbst, 1989; Strassmeier & Rice, 1998), but it is unclear whether these represent the average case or outliers with unusually rapid rotation and magnetic activity. X-ray emission was surveyed in young stellar clusters in nearby star forming clouds with the $`Einstein`$ and $`ROSAT`$ orbiting X-ray telescopes (reviewed in Feigelson & Montmerle, 1999). But the resulting samples typically have $`<100`$ stars across the initial mass function with only a handful of solar analogs. Richer young stellar clusters in more distant giant molecular clouds were examined with $`ROSAT`$, but its optics could not resolve the crowded fields and only the strongest flares could be detected.

We report here an observational study of the young solar analogs in the richest unobscured young star cluster in the nearest giant molecular cloud: the Orion Nebula Cluster, whose OB members ionize the Orion Nebula (Messier 42). The study is conducted with the recently-launched Chandra X-ray Observatory. $`Chandra`$’s superb mirrors provide arcsecond spatial resolution, and the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer (ACIS) detector at its focal plane provides high quantum efficiency with very low background noise and independent spectroscopy of each star. The satellite has a high-ellipticity orbit that permits continuous observation over many hours.

Our principal goal here is to establish unbiased quantitative measures of magnetic activity in young solar-like stars which can serve as empirical input into local irradiation models for meteoritic isotopic anomalies and shock models for chondrules formation.

## 2 Observations and data reduction

The Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) is the richest young star cluster within 500 pc with $`2000`$ members concentrated in a 1 pc ($`8^{}`$) radius sphere (O’dell, 2001). The full initial mass function from a 45 M O star to dozens of substellar brown dwarfs is present. Most of the stars are optically visible (i.e. are not deeply embedded in the Orion molecular cloud and are not heavily absorbed) with $`V<20`$ magnitudes. These stars have well-characterized photometry and spectroscopy from which bolometric luminosities and spectral types are measured on the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (Hillenbrand, 1997). Their locations on the HR diagram are then compared to theoretical stellar interior models (D’Antona & Mazzitelli, 1997) so that stellar ages and masses can be inferred. While most of the stars have ages $`1`$ My, some have lower luminosities implying ages of $`520`$ My. An additional population of deeply embedded stars lies behind the ONC around the OMC 1 cloud cores, but these will not concern us here.

The ONC was observed with the ACIS-I imaging array on board Chandra twice during the inaugural year of the satellite, on 12 Oct 1999 and 1 Apr 2000, for $`12`$ hours on each occasion. The satellite is described by Weisskopf et al. (1996) and details of the ACIS instrument are available at http://www.astro.psu.edu/xray/acis. Garmire et al. (2000) gives a report of the first observation, and a full description of the data reduction and sources found in both observations is given by Feigelson et al. (2001, hereafter F01). We summarize these procedures briefly here.

The satellite telemetry data were corrected for charge transfer inefficiency, cleaned of cosmic ray afterglows, hot columns, undesirable grades and energies. The two observations were merged, and astrometrically aligned to the Hipparcos frame using 2MASS sources to $`\pm 0.1^{\prime \prime }`$ accuracy. Source detection based on a wavelet transform algorithm located 1075 sources with a sensitivity limit of $`9`$ counts ($`L_x1\times 10^{28}`$ erg s-1 for a typical unabsorbed spectrum) near the field center. Source photons were extracted from the 95% or 99% encircled energy circle except where crowding is present. Background is negligible in most cases and is not subtracted here. Effective exposure times include effects of telemetry dropouts, telescope vignetting, and point spread function wings. The total exposure time near the field center is 83 ks. Least-squares spectral fitting to the pulse height distributions were performed assuming a Raymond-Smith plasma with soft-energy absorption, all assuming cosmic elemental abundances. A two-temperature plasma model was adopted when needed for satisfactory spectral fits. Most of the observed emission is attributable to optically thin plasma emission with $`T1030`$ MK (MK = $`10^6`$ K), though some plasma with $`T100`$ MK can be present. The ACIS-I detector is insensitive to plasma cooler than $`T3`$ MK.

The merged ACIS-I field is shown in Figure 1 in the $`0.58`$ keV total energy band. This is the richest field of X-ray sources ever obtained in the history of X-ray astronomy. 92% of the X-ray sources are unambiguously identified with optical/infrared ONC cluster members with angular offsets $`<1`$″ in the inner 10′ where the telescope point spread function is optimum. For the X-ray and optically bright stars under discussion here, there is little doubt that the stellar identifications are correct with one caveat: most of the stars are probably binary or multiple systems at angular scales smaller than $`Chandra`$’s arcsecond resolution (Mathieu, 1994). In the case of visual binaries (those with ‘a’ or ‘b’ in their names in Table 1), we associate the X-ray source with the brighter member of the system (see footnotes of Table 2 in F01 for individual cases).

## 3 Selection and X-ray properties of ONC solar analogs

In this study of analogs of the pre-main sequence Sun, we select for study all well-characterized ONC stars with $`V<20`$ (Hillenbrand, 1997) with inferred masses in the range $`0.7M<1.4`$ M. Mass is chosen as the critical discriminant because it is the strongest predictor of X-ray emission in pre-main sequence stars (Feigelson et al., 2002). These 43 stars are listed in Table 1 and marked in Figure 1. All but two, shown as squares in Figure 1, are associated with ACIS X-ray sources. This is a unique ensemble of pre-main sequence with masses very close to 1 M that have uniform distances, excellent optical/infrared characterization, and nearly complete X-ray detections from a survey with nearly uniform sensitivity.

The sample is complete for unobscured portions of the ONC, and includes a few of moderately absorbed stars. It suffers one selection bias: roughly $`1020`$ ONC stars seen from $`JHK`$ infrared images lie in our mass range but are sufficiently deeply embedded that their visual magnitudes $`V>20`$ (Hillenbrand & Carpenter, 2000). Unless some surprising link between large-scale gaseous environment and X-ray emission is present, the omission of these embedded stars from the sample studied here should have no effect on our results other than the removal of $`20`$ random objects from the full cluster sample of solar-mass stars. We therefore consider the stars listed in Table 1 to be an unbiased sample of solar-mass pre-main sequence stars.

Table 1 lists the sample stars with relevant optical/infrared and X-ray properties. Most entries are extracted from Tables 2 and 3 of F01. Columns $`12`$ give the ACIS source number from F01 and its IAU designation. Column 3 gives the stellar counterpart from Jones & Walker (1988), and columns $`46`$ give the luminosity, visual absorption and estimated age from Hillenbrand (1997). Note that we have truncated ages below $`\mathrm{log}t<5.5`$ yr due to the uncertainties in theoretical modeling of the initial conditions and effects of accretion (e.g. Wuchterl & Klessen, 2001). Column 7 summarizes the evidence concerning a circumstellar disk: a + symbol indicates a near-infrared photometric excess $`\mathrm{\Delta }(IK)>0.3`$ and/or association with a Herbig-Haro outflow, far-infrared source or imaged proplyd; a $``$ symbol indicates $`\mathrm{\Delta }(IK)<0.3`$ and no association of these types; and $`\mathrm{}`$ indicates insufficient information for classification. Column 8 gives the extracted ACIS counts in the $`0.58`$ keV band which are used to evaluate the X-ray properties. For the two undetected stars, upper limits to the extracted counts and X-ray luminosities were obtained following the procedure in §2.11 of F01. Columns $`910`$ give the count rates in the first and second ACIS exposures respectively. Column 11 gives the variability class defined in F01: Constant (Const), Long-Term Variable (LT Var) indicating significantly different count rates between the two exposures, Possible flare (Pos fl) and Flare indicating variability within one or both exposures. Columns $`1113`$ give fitted spectral parameters: interstellar column density along the line of sight in H atoms cm-2, plasma energy in keV (with two energies listed if a one-temperature model provided a poor fit to the spectrum), and an indicator that Spectral Features (S.F.) are present, possibly due to non-solar elemental abundances in the heated plasma.

Column 14 gives the X-ray luminosity $`\mathrm{log}L_x`$ in the total band derived by integrating the spectral model over the $`0.58`$ keV band and multiplying by $`4\pi d^2`$ with $`d=450`$ pc. This is called $`L_t`$ in F01 and is corrected for differences in source spectrum, off-axis point spread function and telescope vignetting losses but is not corrected for line-of-sight absorption. F01 also give soft band, hard band and absorption-corrected total band luminosities for each source. These values typically lie within $`\pm 0.4`$ of $`\mathrm{log}L_x`$ and show the same behavior in scatter plots such as Figure 2. The $`\mathrm{log}L_x`$ values are averaged over both $``$12-hour ACIS exposures which, as seen in Figure 3, masks substantial variability of the sources. Considerable scatter in $`\mathrm{log}L_x`$ values is thus expected due to the limited temporal coverage of each star’s flaring behavior, which is unavoidable in any study of high-amplitude stellar flaring.

## 4 X-ray evolution and flaring in ONC solar analogs

We first evaluate the time-averaged X-ray luminosities of ONC solar analogs to provide an overview of the level and longevity of enhanced magnetic activity during the pre-main sequence phase. Then the short-term variations are examined to quantify the intensity and frequency of magnetic reconnection flares.

### 4.1 Long-term evolution of pre-main sequence X-rays

The distribution of X-ray emission for solar-mass ONC stars as a function of disks and stellar age is shown in Figure 2. The mean111The mean, population standard deviation, and tests for correlation are evaluated using survival analysis techniques which take into account the two nondetections (left censored data points). See Chapter 10 of Babu & Feigelson (1996) for methodological details and code ASURV at http://www.astro.psu.edu/statcodes for implementation. X-ray luminosity is $`<\mathrm{log}L_x>=30.1\pm 0.5`$ erg s-1 for the full sample and $`30.3\pm 0.5`$ erg s-1 for the stars $`1`$ My in age.

But Figure 2a suggests that the X-ray luminosity decreases as the star descends the Hayashi pre-main sequence tracks. An anticorrelation between $`L_x`$ and age is present at a significance level of $`P0.003`$, as evaluated by the generalized Spearman’s $`\rho `$ and Kendall’s $`\tau `$ nonparametric tests for correlation1. A linear regression fit222Here we use the ordinary least squares (OLS) bisector line which is the most reliable of OLS lines that treats the two variables symmetrically. Regression coefficient errors ($`1\sigma `$) are estimated both analytically and with bootstrap simulation. Upper limits are considered to be detections for this calculation. See Chapter 7.2 of Babu & Feigelson (1996) for methodological details and code SLOPES at http://www.astro.psu.edu/statcodes for implementation., shown as the dashed line, gives

$$\mathrm{log}L_x=30.2(\pm 0.8)1.1(\pm 0.1)\mathrm{log}(t/10^6\mathrm{yr})\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1.$$

This finding suggests that magnetic activity decreases as the star ages from $`\mathrm{log}t5`$ to 7 yr, but the correlation is based on only a few stars. This result was absent in early $`Einstein`$ $`Observatory`$ results (Walter & Barry, 1991) and was tentatively reported in one $`ROSAT`$ T Tauri sample (Feigelson et al., 1993), while another $`ROSAT`$ study showed a rise in $`L_x`$ up to $`\mathrm{log}t6.5`$ yr followed by a decline (Neuhäuser et al., 1995).

We note from Figure 2a that the presence or absence of a circumstellar disk (filled or open circles) has no discernable effect on the level of X-ray emission. This result has been found in many X-ray studies of pre-main sequence stars (Feigelson & Montmerle, 1999, F01), though diskless stars were found to be brighter in X-rays than classical T Tauri stars in a $`ROSAT`$ study of the Taurus-Auriga clouds (Stelzer & Neuhäuser, 2001).

Figure 2b shows the evolution of the ratio $`\mathrm{log}L_x/L_{}`$, which is very closely related to the X-ray surface flux $`\mathrm{log}L_x/(4\pi R_{}^2)`$. Here the mean value is $`\mathrm{log}L_x/L_{}=3.9\pm 0.5`$ ($`1\sigma `$) for the whole sample and there is no statistically significant age dependence ($`P0.3`$). However, as noted by Garmire et al. (2000) in a preliminary analysis of this diagram, the magnetic activity of older stars with $`\mathrm{log}t>6.0`$ yr has a higher dispersion ($`\pm 0.8`$) than younger stars with $`\mathrm{log}t6.0`$ yr ($`\pm 0.4`$). The causes of this are unknown: neither the presence of a disk nor surface rotation accounts for this effect (Feigelson et al., 2002). Perhaps stars follow two tracks as they age, one group with roughly constant $`\mathrm{log}L_x`$ and rising $`\mathrm{log}L_x/L_{}`$ and another group with declining $`\mathrm{log}L_x`$ and roughly constant $`\mathrm{log}L_x/L_{}`$. In this hypothetical case, we could not ascertain whether or not the early Sun participated in the general decline of $`\mathrm{log}L_x`$ as it aged. Note that a plot of the mean $`logL_x/L_{}`$ and $`\mathrm{log}t`$ for all (mostly sub-solar mass) stars in several young stellar clusters based on $`ROSAT`$ data shows a factor of $`10`$ rise in $`\mathrm{log}L_x/L_{}`$ with age from $`5<\mathrm{log}t<8`$ (Kastner et al., 1997), suggesting that only some stars participate in the falling $`\mathrm{log}L_x`$ we find in Figure 2a. For the purposes of this study, we conclude only that X-ray emission in solar analogs is typically $`\mathrm{log}L_x30.030.5`$ erg s-1 during the first 1-2 Myr.

### 4.2 Short-term temporal behavior of pre-main sequence X-rays

The Variability Class listed in Table 1 is a qualitative indicator of the degree and nature of the variations. Twenty-eight of the 41 detected stars (68%) of the sources show intraday variability (classes ‘Flare’ and ‘Possible flare’). Of the remaining 13 sources (classes ‘Constant’ and ‘Long-Term Variable’, three show high-amplitude (factor $`>3`$) differences between the two observations suggesting that a long-duration flare is present during the high flux observation. Most of the remaining sources are weak with reduced sensitivity to rapid flares. We thus find that while 2/3 of the sources directly show variations on timescales of hours, the true fraction may be substantially higher. It is difficult to establish this fraction quantitatively due to the wide range of source count rates.

Figure 3 shows the X-ray lightcurves for the 28 stars exhibiting intraday variability and for two stars (JW 553a and JW 907) exhibiting high-amplitude long-term variability. The diversity of temporal behaviors is evident from these 30 lightcurves. Some show fast high-amplitude flares with relatively brief durations of $`14`$ hours superposed on a ’quiescent’ level (e.g. JW 454, 698 and 810), others show slow high-amplitude changes on timescales $`12`$ hours likely to be long-duration flares (e.g. JW 328, 504b, 567, 596, 738 and 826). A few cases show two events during the same 12-hour interval (e.g. JW 457, 463, 769, 826). Some of the less dramatics variations, as well as those of stars not shown, may be attributed to rotational modulation of static coronal structures.

While one cannot reliably distinguish individual flares from quiescent levels in all sources, we estimate from Figure 3 that 30 flares with $`29.0\mathrm{log}L_x(peak)31.5`$ erg s-1 were present in the ONC solar analogs during our observations. Their power is weighted towards the more rather than less luminous flares: 20 of these 30 events have $`\mathrm{log}L_x(peak)30`$ erg s-1. Total energies in the X-ray band, $`E_x=L_xt_f`$ where $`t_f`$ is the duration of the flares, range from $`10^{32}`$ to $`>10^{36}`$ erg. Flaring is present in both older and younger pre-main sequence stars, those with and without circumstellar disks, and those with slow as well as rapid surface rotation. It is a ubiquitous phenomenon.

## 5 ONC flares, solar flares and inferred proton fluences

The results from our Chandra ACIS observations of the ONC solar analogs most salient to the early Sun and solar nebula irradiation issues are the average luminosity, peak flare luminosities, and flare frequcies in comparison to levels seen on the Sun today.

We find that all solar-mass stars with ages $`1`$ My, averaged over both temporal variations and stars with ages $`1`$ My, show an average X-ray luminosity of $`<\mathrm{log}L_x>=30.3`$ erg s-1 in the $`0.58`$ keV band. For comparison, in the same band the contemporary Sun emits typically $`\mathrm{log}L_x25.3`$ erg s-1 with $`T1`$ MK during its quiet phase, $`\mathrm{log}L_x27.0`$ erg s-1 during maximum phase with $`T25`$ MK, and around $`\mathrm{log}L_x28.0`$ erg s-1 with $`T220`$ MK during a powerful (2 Nov 1992) flare (Peres et al., 2000). The ONC solar analogs thus collectively show a factor of $`10^4`$ elevation in X-ray emission over the Sun averaged over the solar cycle, and $`10^{2.5}`$ elevation over the most luminous solar flares.

The prevalence of rapid X-ray variations and high plasma temperatures of $`10T100`$ MK indicate that pre-main sequence X-rays generally arise from flare rather than coronal phenomena, even when individual flare events are not clearly seen in the lightcurves333Most of the observed X-ray emission in ONC stars is also too hot to arise from accretion onto the stellar surface from the disk or environs (Lamzin, 1999). See, however, Kastner et al. (2001) for a soft-spectrum T Tauri star where accretion may dominate the X-ray spectrum.. For comparison, the most X-ray luminous flares of recent solar cycles had $`\mathrm{log}L_x(peak)28.5\pm 0.5`$ erg s-1 in the $`Chandra`$ spectral band (see Appendix). Taking $`10^{30}`$ erg s-1 for the typical flare in our ONC sample, we find that ONC solar analogs exhibits flares $`10^{1.5}`$ times more X-ray luminous than these extreme solar events. The ONC flares are roughly $`10^4`$ times more powerful than solar flares which occur with a daily frequency.

Our ONC dataset is collectively equivalent to 86 0.5-day observations of a single solar-mass pre-main sequence star spread over a long period of time. The observed ONC flare frequency is thus about 30 flares over 43 days or 1 flare every 1.4 days or $`1\times 10^5`$ s. The maximal solar flares with $`\mathrm{log}L_x(peak)28.5`$ erg s-1 occur roughly once every year or $`3\times 10^7`$ (Sammis, Tang, & Zirin, 2000, see Appendix). The ONC flares we detect are thus occur roughly $`10^{2.5}`$ times frequently than the most powerful solar flares.

We can now estimate the time-averaged enhancement of X-ray flare luminosity of ONC solar analogs compared to the strongest contemporary solar long duration events: $`10^{1.5}`$ elevation in peak luminosity times $`10^{2.5}`$ more frequent occurrence gives a $`10^4`$ enhancement in total flare X-ray emission. This is similar to the $`10^4`$ factors we find comparing the ONC stars with the time-averaged X-ray luminosity and daily solar flares.

For application to computations of nuclear spallation reactions, we must consider that solar proton fluences scale non-linearly with solar X-ray luminosity in the sense that most of the protons are produced by the most powerful flares. This is usually expressed in terms of the frequency distribution of events as a function of energy $`E`$: the distribution of proton events, $`dN/dEE^{1.15}`$, is significantly flatter than the distribution of X-ray events, $`dN/dEE^{1.6}E^{1.8}`$ (Hudson, 1991; Crosby, Aschwanden, & Dennis, 1993). If this difference extends over the $`10^2`$ extrapolation in luminosity between solar and ONC flares, one infers an additional $`10^1`$ increase in proton fluences in the early Sun from the observed giant flares444A final multiplicative factor associated with the proton contribution of flares fainter than the $`\mathrm{log}L_x29.0`$ erg s-1 flare sensitivity limit of the Chandra observations can be included. But this may be relatively small because the frequency distribution of solar proton events is heavily weighted towards the strongest flares so the weaker flares, though more numerous, contribute relatively little to the total particle fluence.. We note that there is no astrophysical basis for this extrapolation; it is possible that proton fluence saturates at some lower level, as appears to occur in the contemporary Sun (Reedy, 1996, see Appendix). However, the existence of efficient acceleration of relativistic particles by pre-main sequence flares is observationally established by their radio gyrosynchrotron emission (§6.2).

The enhancement in proton fluences of $`<1`$ My ONC solar analogs is thus inferred to be about $`10^5`$ above that produced by the most powerful flares from the Sun today: $`10^{1.5}`$ from the increased X-ray luminosity, $`10^{2.5}`$ from the increased occurrence frequency, and $`10^1`$ from the increased proton flux compared to X-ray flux. As the contemporary proton fluence at 1 A.U. from the flare site averaged over a solar cycle is measured to be $`f_p200`$ protons cm-2 s-1 with energies $`E>10`$ MeV (Reedy, 1996, see Appendix), the inferred proton fluence at 1 A.U. for solar-mass stellar systems during their first million years is $`f_p10^7`$ protons cm-2 s-1. Note that, as the duration of a single powerful solar proton event is typically several hours and flares with $`\mathrm{log}L_x(peak)>28`$ erg s-1 (below our detection limit) probably occurred several times a day, it is likely that the pre-main sequence Sun was producing high fluences of relativistic protons nearly continuously from overlapping magnetic flare events.

It is useful for some theoretical calculations to estimate the luminosity of energetic protons rather than the fluence at 1 A.U. The conversion is not simple as proton ejection and propagation is guided by the magnetic fields and is not isotropic. If we roughly assume protons are ejected in an outward-facing hemisphere and that their average energy is $`E_{20}=20`$ MeV, then the luminosity of $`E>10`$ MeV protons inferred from the ONC flaring is $`L_p2\pi d^2f_pE_{20}=5\times 10^{29}(d/1\mathrm{A}.\mathrm{U}.)^2`$ erg s-1. The ratio $`L_p/L_x`$ we infer for pre-main sequence flares is of order $`10^1`$, consistent with available knowledge of the energetics of powerful solar flares.

We also note that the directly observed value $`<\mathrm{log}L_x>30.3`$ erg s-1 should be useful for computations of X-ray ionization and astrochemistry of the solar nebula and other circumstellar material around solar-mass pre-main sequence stars (e.g. Igea & Glassgold, 1999; Aikawa & Herbst, 1999; Glassgold, Feigelson, & Montmerle, 2000; Glassgold et al., 2001).

## 6 From Orion X-ray flares to meteoritic isotopic anomalies

In this section, we discuss in some detail the degree of confidence in the line of reasoning linking the observations of ONC X-ray flares and the measurements of short-lived isotopic abundance anomalies in carbonaceous chondrites. We find that some links in the logical chain are strong while others suffer considerable uncertainty.

### 6.1 Do Orion results apply to the early Sun?

Our results show that the great majority of stars in our sample exhibit very high flaring levels during their first Myr. A critical element of our study’s design is the completeness of the sample of pre-main sequence solar mass stars within well-defined observational criteria. The only selection bias within the ONC is the preference for unobscured stars in the evacuated region of the Messier 42 HII region over obscured stars lying in the undisturbed molecular cloud behind the HII region. We have not thought of any mechanism whereby this bias can affect magnetic activity.

While the X-ray luminosities of young stars have dependencies on mass and age which we have accounted for, there is no known dependence on their star forming environments. Although quantitative studies are lacking due to insufficiency of optical characterizations, $`Chandra`$ studies of T Tauri stars in environments as sparse as the L1551 cloud in Taurus-Auriga (Bally et al., in preparation) and NGC 1333 region in Perseus (Getman et al., 2002) and as rich as the Rosette OB association (Townsley et al., in preparation) have similar X-ray luminosity ranges, plasma temperatures and variability properties. With $`2000`$ stars, the ONC is roughly midway in log-mass between the richest star clusters and the sparse groups forming in low mass nearby molecular clouds. When equal logarithmic intervals of mass are considered, a given star has roughly equal probability of having formed in large and small clusters (Elmegreen & Efremov, 1997). The flaring activity of ONC solar-mass stars can thus be applied to any solar mass star with considerable confidence.

The universality of enhanced flaring stands in contrast to competing models for external seeding of radioactive isotopes which require special conditions. For example, seeding by the passage of an AGB star during its dredge-up phases when freshly synthesized atoms will permeate its atmosphere (Wasserburg et al., 1994; Busso, Gallino, & Wasserburg, 1999) is likely to apply in only $`1:10^6`$ star forming sites (Kastner & Myers, 1994).

### 6.2 Do X-ray flares produce energetic protons?

In solar flares, the magnetic reconnection processes that heat plasma to X-ray temperatures can also accelerate and release charged particles with MeV energies (see Appendix). Particle acceleration is evidenced by variable nonthermal and circularly polarized radio continuum emission, gamma-ray emission lines from spallogenic nuclear excitation, and sudden enhancements of energetic particles propagating through the interplanetary medium. The processes are complex and not fully understood. The heating of plasma to X-ray temperatures and the acceleration of particles to MeV energies are sometimes nearly simultaneous and cospatial, but are often decoupled. For example, a multiwavelength study of the magnetically active T Tauri star V773 Tau showed several-fold decay of a radio flare simultaneous with a constant high level of X-ray emission over several hours (Feigelson et al., 1994). In the Sun, radio bursts associated with flares can occur on timescales of one second to many hours and span $`4`$ orders of magnitude in frequency (Bastian, Benz, & Gary, 1998). Only during the brief impulsive phases of some flares are radio, gamma-ray and hard X-ray emission nearly simultaneous and clearly originate from the same reconnection event.

However, despite the complexity of solar flare physics and the lack of a simple relationship between X-ray flares and solar energetic particles, the link is statistically strong. The NOAA Space Environment Center uses the integrated solar luminosity above $`1\times 10^{26}`$ erg s-1 (M5 level) in the $`1.512`$ keV band from the $`GOES`$ X-Ray Sensor to forecast the proton fluence that arrives at 1 A.U. hours to days later (Bornmann et al., 1996).

A strong statistical link also exists between X-ray emission and radio gyrosynchrotron from energetic electrons in the solar-stellar arena. The relationship $`\mathrm{log}L_x19.0+0.73\mathrm{log}L_r`$, where $`L_r`$ is expressed in erg s-1 Hz-1, is found over 10 orders of magnitude in $`L_r`$, extending from solar microflares to the most magnetically active late-type stars (Benz & Guedel, 1994). Radio gyrosynchrotron emission has been detected including several dozen weak-lined T Tauri stars at levels around $`10^{25}`$ erg s-1 Hz-1 at centimeter wavelengths, and in a few cases high fractions of circular polarization conclusively demonstrate that the emission is gyrosynchrotron from trans-relativistic electrons accelerated in strong magnetic fields (see reviews by André, 1996; Feigelson & Montmerle, 1999). Gyrosynchrotron emission is generally undetected from the earlier evolutionary phases, probably due to free-free absorption by ionized material associated with accretion and outflows. But variable circular polarized emission has been seen in three protostars, two of which also show X-ray flares (Phillips, Lonsdale, & Feigelson, 1993; Feigelson, Carkner, & Wilking, 1998; Getman et al., 2002). Young stars with the most powerful flares, including weak-lined T Tauri stars, generally show radio emission $`12`$ orders of magnitude above the level predicted by the Benz-Güdel relation. This is attributed to saturation of X-ray flares but not radio flares near the stellar surface (Güdel, Guinan, & Skinner, 1997).

As it is difficult to imagine a magnetic reconnection process that accelerates electrons but not protons, these radio findings provide strong evidence that MeV protons are copiously produced in pre-main sequence flares.

### 6.3 Do the protons hit the disk?

There is considerable uncertainty about the spatial relationships between disk solids and energetic flare particles in young stellar system. While a vast literature attests to the presence of powerful and frequent magnetic flares in T Tauri stars, the geometry of the reconnecting fields is still under debate (Feigelson & Montmerle, 1999). We consider three alternative geometries, each with a different implication for the efficiency of proton irradiation of disk material.

#### 6.3.1 Stellar surface fields

Optical photometry and Doppler imaging of active regions, and Zeeman splitting of photospheric absorption lines demonstrate that T Tauri stars have multipolar magnetic fields like the Sun but greatly enhanced in strength and surface coverage. The Zeeman measurements indicate average surface field strengths $`Bf24`$ G, where $`f`$ is the surface fraction covered with fields (Valenti, 2001). Study of X-ray flare emission during eclipses of the magnetically active binary Algol show that its emission is confined to the close vicinity of the stellar surface (Schmitt & Favata, 1999), but no similar direct measurement is available for T Tauri stars. Models of young stellar flare decays based on radiative cooling of an instantaneously heated plasma suggest magnetic loops much larger than the stellar radius. But models invoking continuous reheating are consistent with smaller loops of order $`0.1`$ R in extent (Favata, Micela, & Reale, 2001).

If the X-rays are produced from reconnecting multipolar fields near the stellar surface as in the Sun then, assuming a direct ballistic trajectory, 13% of the emission will impact a hypothetically flat thin disk at an oblique angle (Hartmann, 1998, 98ff). Theoretical considerations (Chiang & Goldreich, 1997) and direct imaging of protostellar disks (Bell et al., 1997) indicate disk flaring (i.e. vertical scale height increases with distance from the young star) is common on $`>1`$ A.U. scales, so the impact fraction is likely higher. However, energetic protons released by reconnecting fields must follow magnetic field lines which are likely to have a complicated geometry that may differ substantially from the solar field. Some protons may be released into a closed dipole magnetosphere, while others may follow open lines that perpendicular to the disk that confine the bipolar outflows (Shu et al., 2000). It is unclear whether a substantial fraction of energetic protons would be focused onto the disk. This question may be answered by the next generation of radio interferometers which could image the spatial distribution of flare-generated MeV electrons (§6.3.4).

Two features in our $`Chandra`$ Orion results suggest that pre-main sequence flares arise near the stellar surface as in main sequence stellar flares. First, short-duration secondary flares are seen superposed on the long decay phase of a powerful flare in a number of cases (see JW 470, 567 and 826 in Figure 3). This is commonly seen in powerful solar long duration flares as different portions of a complex active region release magnetic energy. Second, some of the ACIS spectra show emission lines indicative of elemental abundance anomalies seen in stars whose emission processes are definitely unrelated to circumstellar disks. A considerable number of ONC ACIS sources, including some solar analogs, show spectra suggesting overabundance of neon and underabundance of iron. This combination of plasma abundance anomalies, nicknamed the ‘anti-FIP Effect’ (First Ionization Potential), has been seen in the X-ray spectra of flares of magnetically active main sequence and RS CVn giant stars (Brinkman et al., 2001; Güdel et al., 2001). The reasons for these plasma abundance anomalies are still uncertain but are thought to involve the evaporation of chemically fractionated regions of the stellar surface by flare energetic particles. It is unclear whether a similar fractionation could occur at the surface of a circumstellar disk.

#### 6.3.2 Star-disk fields

Considerable evidence suggests that young stars have strong dipole magnetic fields which extend out to the corotation radius of the circumstellar disk (see reviews by Hartmann, 1998; Feigelson & Montmerle, 1999; Shu et al., 2000). Star-disk field lines simultaneously funnel accreting material onto the stellar surface (this gas is responsible for T Tauri broad optical emission lines that had been formerly attributed to a dense stellar wind), and likely transfer stellar angular momentum from the star to a bipolar outflow (see however Stassun et al., 1999).

In this case, it is reasonable that some magnetic field lines will extend from the disk to portions of the disk that are not in corotation with the star and will thereby suffer twisting and reconnection. This might occur if the disk has inhomogeneous accretion rate (Shu et al., 1997), if the stellar rotation is not yet decelerated (Montmerle et al., 2000), or if field lines are coupled to the shearing layers in the Keplerian disk (Birk et al., 2000). Numerical MHD calculations indicate that the interaction between the stellar dipolar and disk toroidal fields is unstable and can erupt with a violent magnetic reconnection (Hayashi, Shibata, & Matsumoto, 1996). In this geometry, the flare X-rays and particles are produced close to and above the inner disk, and spallation of inner disk material is likely to occur in an efficient manner. This is the geometry assumed in the meteoritic spallation calculations of Lee et al. (1998) and Gounelle et al. (2001) and in the chondrule melting model of Shu et al. (2001).

#### 6.3.3 Disk fields

It is likely protostellar disks amplify embedded magnetic fields through turbulence and dynamo processes, and it is possible that violent reconnection occurs when these fields emerge at the disk surfaces. Ionization from cosmic rays and young stellar X-rays are sufficient to couple the largely neutral disk gas to field lines and induce turbulence via the magneto-rotational (Balbus-Hawley) instability over the outer layers of the protostellar disk (Gammie, 1996; Igea & Glassgold, 1999). Numerical MHD models show heating and ionization of a disk corona (Miller & Stone, 2000), but these calculations do not include the physics for reconnection and flares. Detailed modeling of flaring from magnetic fields subject to the Keplerian shear of an accretion disk is just beginning (Romanova et al., 1998; Poutanen & Fabian, 1999).

Disk magnetic fields and flares have also emerged in meteoritical studies. The ‘remanent magnetism’ of chondrules in a wide range of stony meteorites gives direct evidence for $`1`$ G fields in the solar nebula (Levy, 1978). In addition, some models of chondrules melting and proton spallation are based on irradiation from disk field flares: Levy & Araki (1989) consider flares in a disk corona during the earliest evolutionary phases, while Cameron (1995) considers flares at the interface between the young solar wind and a receding disk during a later pre-main sequence phase. In both cases, the advantage of disk flares is to produce chondrules and radioactive isotopes in situ at the Asteroid Belt where the parent bodies of meteorites are now found.

#### 6.3.4 Observational tests of magnetic geometry

Two observational tests of these alternatives are feasible. First, some X-ray flares from young stars are sufficiently hot ($`kT5`$ keV) and luminous that the continuum around the K$`\alpha `$ transitions of iron is seen with high signal-to-noise. Such cases provide the opportunity to see a fluorescent emission line reflected from neutral iron atoms in the circumstellar disk. This fluorescent line at 6.4 keV can be distinguished from the $`6.66.9`$ keV thermal line complex produced by the highly ionized iron species in the flare plasma at CCD spectral resolution. Double emission line complexes attributable to hot and cold iron have been reported in two very young protostellar systems: infrared source R1 in the Corona Australis Coronet Cluster using the ASCA SIS detector (Koyama et al., 1996) and YLW 16A in the $`\rho `$ Ophiuchi cloud core using the Chandra ACIS-I detector (Imanishi, Koyama, & Tsuboi, 2001). In both cases, the equivalent width of the two iron lines were comparable, indicating that the disk subtends a large solid angle when viewed by the X-ray emitting magnetic structure.

This is evidence against reconnection of magnetic fields very close to the stellar surface (§6.3.1), and favors a geometry where the reconnection occurs above the disk in a ‘lamppost’ configuration (§6.3.2-6.3.3). Fluorescent iron line emission under a variety of geometries has been investigated in the context of Seyfert galaxies and X-ray binary systems (Nayakshin & Kallman, 2001, and references therein), although similar study has not yet been conducted specifically for protostellar systems. As in Seyferts, the high amplitude variability of the flare emission should be reproduced in the fluorescent line with time delays associated with the relative geometry of the emitting and reflecting components and the line-of-sight. This is a potentially powerful tool for understanding protostellar systems, but the limited signal-to-noise around 6.4 keV provided by existing telescopes permits only limited reverberation mapping. Imanishi, Koyama, & Tsuboi (2001) report that the emitting and reflecting components in YLW 16A vary together with a delay $`<10^4`$ light-seconds indicating that the flare-disk distance is $`<15`$ A.U. Higher signal-to-noise reverberation mapping studies may be very fruitful with planned high-throughput X-ray missions such as Constellation-X and XEUS.

The second method for measuring magnetic geometries in young stellar systems uses radio band Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) which can image the distribution of transrelativistic electrons emitting gyrosynchrotron radiation. It is likely that the spatial distribution of MeV protons is similar to that of MeV electrons, as both must follow the magnetic field lines from the sites of particle acceleration. A VLBI survey of several radio- and X-ray-bright young stellar objects in nearby star forming regions revealed extended emission on scales of $`1`$ mas or $`200`$ A.U. (Phillips, Lonsdale, & Feigelson, 1991), but in at least one case the emission was found to arise from both components of a close binary (Phillips et al., 1996). There is one example of a clearly resolved nonthermal young stellar radio source: T Tau South, the embedded companion to the optically bright prototype T Tau, exhibits variable radio emission concentrated in two jets where each jet produces gyrosynchrotron with oppositely oriented circular polarization (Ray et al., 1997). If this geometry is ubiquitous, we might conclude that energetic protons produced by protostellar flares are transported away from the outer disk by the bipolar outflows. But it is still possible in this situation that the particles impact inner disk solids at the base of the outflow, as in the proton irradiation model of Shu et al. (1997) and Gounelle et al. (2001). The planned Extended Very Large Array and Atacama Large Millimeter Array should have the sufficient capabilities to resolve the magnetic structures containing relativistic particles in nearby YSOs. This requires mapping circularly polarized sub-milliJansky continuum emission on milliarcsecond scales.

### 6.4 Can the impacting protons produce the anomalies?

A full analysis of the spallogenic effect of the energetic protons in pre-main sequence stellar systems lies beyond the scope of this paper. We restrict our discussion to the relationship between two recent theoretical investigations of spallation in the solar nebula and the proton fluences inferred to be present in the present study.

Lee et al. (1998) and Gounelle et al. (2001) consider the effect of a powerful reconnection event occurring above the corotation radius of the circumstellar disk having $`\mathrm{log}L_x=5\times 10^{30}`$ erg s-1 and a luminosity in $`E>10`$ MeV protons of $`L_p=4.5\times 10^{29}`$ erg s-1. Their spallation model is applied to proto-CAI material near the disk corotation radius and produces observed abundances of several short-lived nuclides: 10Be, 26Al, 41Ca, 53Mn and 138La but not 60Fe. They treat self-shielding in CAIs $`1`$ mm in size, which is important to reduce overproduction of 41Ca. Their model requires specification of flaring magnetic field geometry (a ‘lamppost’ loop over the inner disk), 3He enrichment of flare particles555The overabundance of neon seen in the X-ray spectra of powerful stellar flares (Brinkman et al., 2001; Güdel et al., 2001, , §6.3.1) and the association of neon with helium abundances in solar energetic particles (Dwyer et al., 2001) support this idea. If it is due to a chemical fractionization by first ionization potential, then helium and neon abundances should be correlated in flare plasmas which are the likely source of accelerated particles as helium and neon have the highest first ionization potentials of all elements. Recall that helium lines cannot be detected in the X-ray plasmas because it is fully ionized., and a mechanism for dispersing the CAIs from the inner to the mid-disk region by temporary entrainment into the bipolar outflow.

Goswami, Marhas, & Sahijpal (2001) study the spallogenic production of 26Al, 36Cl, 41Ca and 53Mn by solar enegetic particles in the mid-disk region. They consider reactions on both gas- and solid-phase atoms using energetic protons and 4He (but not 3He) with self-shielding in the larger particles. The cause and geometry of the flare event is not specified. Proton fluxes are normalized to a time-averaged level of $`f_p(E>10\mathrm{MeV})100`$ protons cm-2 s-1 observed at 1 A.U. from the contemporary Sun. They find that meteoritic abundances of 41Ca, 36Cl and 53Mn require $`5\times 10^3`$ to $`10^4`$fold enhancement of the proton flux for $`5\times 10^5`$ to several million years, while production of 26Al requires enhancement factor of almost $`10^5`$.

We find that both of these calculations of a solar nebula origin of meteoritic short-lived nuclei are fully consistent with the flare proton levels we infer are present during the first million years of the solar system. The X-ray and proton luminosities assumed by Gounelle et al. (2001) to explain the observed abundances of several nuclides are nearly identical to the values we find from ONC solar analogs (§5). The proton enhancement factors and irradiation durations required by Goswami, Marhas, & Sahijpal (2001) similarly consistent with the $`10^5`$ enhancement over $`1`$ My that we infer from the Chandra ONC results (§5). Recall that their enhancement factors apply to particle fluences observed at a distance of 1 A.U. from the proton acceleration site, so that lower enhancement factors would be needed if the flaring magnetic structures were closer to the irradiated disk material, as in §6.3.2-6.3.3. Our observational findings on ONC solar analogs and these calculations of meteoritic isotopic anomalies from spallation by locally produced particles are thus completely compatible completely compatible with each other, except for unfavorable magnetic field geometries.

## 7 Conclusions

This study addresses long-standing puzzles regarding the origin of high energy processes in the solar nebula, as evidenced by petrologic, isotopic and cosmic ray tracers in ancient pristine meteorites. Based on the general knowledge of enhanced X-ray flaring in pre-main sequence stars available a decade ago, Feigelson, Giampapa, & Vrba (1991) concluded that X-ray and radio flare studies of T Tauri stars ”have a clear contribution to these debates concerning meteoritic properties: invoking high levels of energetic particle or radiation fluxes associated with magnetic activity in the early Sun is no longer ad hoc”. The $`Chandra`$ measurements of flaring in Orion pre-main sequence solar analogs presented here confirm this statement and provide details that were not available earlier.

We have established that virtually all analogs of the $`1`$ My old pre-main sequence Sun exhibited X-ray flares that are $`10^{1.5}`$ times more powerful and $`10^{2.5}`$ times more frequent than the most powerful flares seen on the contemporary Sun (§5). The inferred energetic proton flux is increased by an additional factor of $`10^1`$ above the X-ray flux, although the physical mechanism underlying this enhancement factor is uncertain. We infer that the proton fluence in the early Sun is about $`10^5`$ times the time-averaged levels produced by the contemporary Sun.

The line of reasoning linking the ONC X-ray measurements to solar nebular isotopic anomalies has several steps. The completeness of our sample and ubiquity of strong X-ray flaring during the first My (though a decline in activity appears in some stars during the $`110`$ My period, §4.1) argues strongly that the early Sun produced such flares (§6.1). There are also strong reasons, based on YSO radio gyrosynchrotron measurements and analogy with solar flare physics, to believe that the ONC X-ray flares are accompanied by high proton fluences (§6.2). The geometry of the reconnecting magnetic fields and consequence fraction of flare protons that impact the disk is uncertain, particularly at distant locations in the Asteroid Belt where meteorites parent bodies are now found (§6.3). However, the report of the 6.4 keV iron fluorescent line in protostellar spectra strongly suggests that the X-rays, and by reasonable inference the protons, efficiently impact the disk. Unless the flare geometries are unfavorable, we find the inferred proton flux on the disk is sufficient to produce the observed CAI abundances of several important short-lived radioactive isotopes (§6.4).

Our study thus strengthens the astronomical foundation for local proton spallation models of meteoritic isotopic anomalies. However, it cannot not establish the entire theory. For example, it is not clear that a local spallation model can account for meteoritic 60Fe (Lee et al., 1998) or for the evidence that the abundance of 53Mn was greater in the outer solar nebula than the inner nebula (Shukolyukov & Lugmair, 2000). It seems plausible that both external seeding and internal spallation may have been sources of short-lived nuclides in the solar nebula. Meyer & Clayton (2000) also emphasize that several extinct radioactive isotopes in meteorites can be attributed to ongoing nucleosynthesis in the Galaxy.

Although our attention here has been principally directed towards the isotopic anomalies, the findings here may similarly important implications for the other meteoritic characteristics demanding high energy processes. Our results clearly support the extensive evidence for a flare spallogenic origin of excess 21Ne and particle tracks in gas-rich meteoritic silicate grains (e.g. Caffee et al., 1987; Woolum & Hohenberg, 1993; Caffee & Nishiizumi, 2001). The contribution of flare energetic particles to disk and outflow ionization might be added to existing calculations treating Galactic cosmic ray and stellar X-ray ionization (e.g. Gammie, 1996; Igea & Glassgold, 1999). The effects of flare radiation and shocks on disk solids, including the possibility of flash melting the chondrules, have been considered in detail in only limited contexts (Levy & Araki, 1989; Shu et al., 2001). More extensive calculations of such effects based on various possible magnetic geometries may now be warranted.

We thank members of the ACIS Orion research team $``$ Pat Broos, Jim Gaffney, Leisa Townsley, Yohko Tsuboi (PSU) and Lynne Hillenbrand (Caltech) $``$ for their many efforts. The paper greatly benefited from the thoughtful commentary of the principal referee, A. G. W. Cameron (Harvard/Arizona-LPL). Valuable comments on the manuscript were also provided by Donald Clayton (Clemson), Terry Forbes (UNH), Alfred Glassgold (NYU/UCB), Martin Gounelle (Natural History Museum, London), Thierry Montmerle (Saclay) and Sienny Shang (UCB). This work was principally funded by NASA contract NAS8-38252 supporting the Chandra ACIS team (G. Garmire PI).

## Appendix A Comparison with contemporary solar flares

The powerful X-ray flares we detect in ONC solar analogs closely resemble the X-ray emission from relatively rare powerful solar flares. Such flares constitute long duration events (10-20 hours) in the soft X-ray band and are associated with gradual hard burst events (GHXs) with hardening in the X-ray band from roughly 40 to 200 keV. These events are also associated with type II and IV bursts in the metric radio band, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), and prompt solar energetic particle events (SEPs) in measurements of the interplanetary medium. These properties have been nicknamed the Big Flare Syndrome (Kahler, 1982) because small to moderate events often lack one or more of these features.

While their physics is very complex and still debated, successful models for many properties of solar eruptive events have been developed. Their power and duration require continuing release of energy previously stored in magnetic fields at the solar surface. In many models, a flux rope rises in an arcade of field loops, resulting in field reconnection to a simpler geometry and the ejection of magnetic flux at velocities of 1000-2000 km s-1 (Priest & Forbes, 2000, §11.1). The outer loops of the arcade are filled with $`10^7`$ K plasma, while the inner loops have $`10^4`$ plasma appearing as two ribbons of H$`\alpha `$ emission (hence the nomenclature ‘two-ribbon flare’). Both radiative and conductive cooling may be important in the heated loops. Some gas flows downward onto the surface, evaporating chromospheric material which then flows upwards along other field lines; this may be responsible for unusual elemental abundances seen in some solar and stellar X-ray flare plasmas.

The production of energetic (MeV) particles is less well understood but may involve several processes acting alone or in consort: direct acceleration by strong electric fields between different magnetic regions of the flare, or acceleration in MHD waves, shocks, instabilities or turbulence (Miller et al., 1997; Priest & Forbes, 2000, , §13). Particles can be accelerated both on small scales during the impulsive phase of a flare, on larger scales within the coronal mass ejection, or on very large scales in corotating interaction regions of the solar wind. During the brief impulsive flare, gamma-ray line and continuum emission, neutrons from nuclear collisions, microwave gyrosynchrotron, and hard X-ray bremsstrahlung can be present. Impulsive particle acceleration appears to be very efficient with $`10^{31}`$ erg produced in each of energetic electrons, protons and ions in an X-class flare. Protons can acquire up to GeV energies. However, many of these particles remain trapped in solar fields and are not ejected into the interplanetary medium.

During $`19891997`$ (solar cycle 22), a period of about 3000 days, the Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) 7 satellite detected about 20 solar flares with $`28.0\mathrm{log}L_x(peak)29.0`$ erg s-1 in the $`1.612`$ keV ($`18`$ Å) band (Sammis, Tang, & Zirin, 2000). The recurrence rate of these maximally X-ray luminous solar flares, which are $`100`$ times weaker than the typical ONC flare is about one flare per year ($`3\times 10^7`$ s).

Reedy (1996, updated in Reedy 2001) has obtained an understanding of the fluence of solar enegetic particles at 1 A.U. He combines direct spacecraft measurements of solar energetic particles from 1965-91 (solar cycles $`2022`$) with indirect measurements from 14C in tree ring data and abundances of spallogenic nuclides in lunar rocks. The results are all consistent with a constant time-averaged omnidirectional proton flux over the past $`10^110^6`$ yr of $`f_p200`$ protons cm-2 s-1 at 1 A.U. for energies $`E>10`$ MeV. Most of these protons are produced in the most powerful flares as the integrated frequency of events with fluence $`F`$ is given by666This relation differs somewhat from the differential distribution $`dN/dEE^{1.15}`$ reported by van Hollebeke, Ma Sung, & McDonald (1975). While indices ranging from -1.15 to -1.4 have been reported for the distribution of solar proton events, they are always substantially flatter than the -1.8 index found for the distribution of X-ray peak fluxes (Hudson, 1991). $`N(F>F_o)1(F_o/10^9\mathrm{protons}\mathrm{cm}^2)^{0.4}`$ yr-1 over the range $`10^7<F_o<10^{10}`$ protons cm-2.

Reedy finds a steep cutoff in solar particle events with fluences above $`10^{10}`$ protons cm-2. The reasons for this are unknown. We assume here that this limit applies only to contemporary solar flares, and that the proton fluences associated with young stellar flares exhibiting X-ray luminosities far above those seen in the Sun today can considerably exceed this solar limit.

It can be useful to examine the behavior of individual powerful solar flares as analogs for ONC flares. Consider, for example, a typical strong solar flare and proton event like the 23-24 March 1991 flare (SOLTIP Interval 1; Shea & Smart, 1996, see details in Watanabe 1995). The $`GOES7`$ lightcurve shows the Sun’s X-ray luminosity rise over $`4`$ hours from $`8\times 10^{24}`$ to a peak of $`1\times 10^{26}`$ erg s-1 in the $`1.612`$ keV band. The X-ray decay over $`20`$ hours is accompanied by several $`1`$ hr secondary flares with peak luminosities comparable to the principal flare. The flare was followed by an increase in $`E>1`$ MeV proton fluence from $`10^1`$ to $`10^{5.5}`$ protons cm-2 s-1 ster-1 at 1 A.U. over the next day, which produced a major geomagnetic storm, terrestrial electromagnetic anomalies, and a prominent decrease in the Galactic cosmic ray intensity. Note, however, that the flare on the previous day, 22 March, which was an intense gamma-ray and relativistic neutron emitter, produced a brief impulsive X-ray spike but not a long duration soft X-ray event.

An exceptionally powerful group of solar flares occurred over two weeks in June 1991 (SOLTIP Interval 2). Several received the highest possible X-ray classification $`>`$X12. The 1 June 1991 flare, for example, produced: (a) $`10^{32}2\times 10^{33}`$ erg in X-rays (the exact value is unknown due to saturation of the GOES detectors); (b) more than $`10^{32}10^{34}`$ erg injected (but not necessarily released into the interplanetary medium) in $`>20`$ keV electrons; (c) $`10^{33}`$ erg in MeV nucleons; (d) a powerful flux of neutrons; and (e) strong shocks in the interplanetary medium driven by flare-induced 3He-enriched coronal mass ejection (Kane et al., 1995; Watanabe, T., 1995; Ramaty et al., 1997; Murphy et al., 1999; Clayton, Guzik, & Wefel, 2000). The peak X-ray luminosity in the GOES $`1.612`$ keV band is estimated to be $`\mathrm{log}L_x10^{28.5}`$ erg s-1. No major proton flare was seen at the Earth from this event as the interplanetary magnetic field lines carrying the particles fortuitously missed the Earth.


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# Atomic Processes in Planetary Nebulae

## 1. Introduction

A planetary nebula may be thought of as an ‘astrophysical laboratory’ of atomic emission-line spectra. The spectra enable determination of its temperature, density, and abundances of elements. The precise spectral analyis require accurate atomic parameters for the radiative are collisional processes in the nebular plasma. The four basic atomic processes that dominant the nebular plasma are:

i) Radiative bound-bound transition for excitation or de-excitation:

$$X^{+Z}+h\nu X^{+Z},$$

where the ion, $`X`$, is of charge, $`Z`$.

ii) Photoionization (PI) by absorption of a photon:

$$X^{+Z}+h\nu X^{+Z+1}+ϵ,$$

The inverse process is the electron-ion radiative recombination (RR).

iii) Autoionization (AI) and dielectronic recombination (DR):

$$e+X^{+Z}(X^{+Z1})^{}\{\begin{array}{cc}e+X^{+Z}\hfill & \text{AI}\hfill \\ X^{+Z1}+h\nu \hfill & \text{DR}\hfill \end{array}$$

where the intermediate doubly excited state, autoionizing state, introduces resonances in the atomic processes. The inverse process of DR is photoionization via the autoionizing state.

iv) The collisional process of electron-impact excitation (EIE)

$$e+X^{+Z}e^{}+X^{+Z}$$

is one of the primary processes for spectral formation in astrophysical plasmas.

Each process needs to be treated separately to obtain the relevant atomic parameters. Sample results for each process, obtained mainly under the OP (1995, 1996) and the IP (1993) for accurate atomic data and stellar opacities will be presented later. Astrophysical model applications, such as for plasma opacities, need a huge amount of atomic data as these deal with a large number of atomic levels over wide energy ranges. Consistent sets of atomic parameters can be obtained if the atom or the ion is described by the same wavefunction expansion in each process. This also reduces the uncertainty in applications involving different processes and approximations. The Close Coupling (CC) R-matrix mehtodology employed by the OP and IP enable the computation of such self-consistent sets of atomic parameters.

The large amount of atomic data and opacities obtained under the OP and the IP are available electronically through the existing database, TOPbase (Cunto et al. 1993), and through its planned extension TIPTOPBASE (C. Mendoza and the OP/IP team).

## 2. Theory

All calculations for the various atomic parameters of the dominant atomic processes are carried out using the accurate and powerful R-matrix method in the close-coupling approximation (e.g. Burke & Robb 1975, Seaton 1987, Berrington et al. 1987, Berrington et al. 1995). The total wavefunction for a (N+1) electron system in the CC approximation is described as:

$$\mathrm{\Psi }_E(e+ion)=A\underset{i}{\overset{N}{}}\chi _i(ion)\theta _i+\underset{j}{}c_j\mathrm{\Phi }_j(e+ion),$$
(1)
where $`\chi _i`$ is the target ion or core wavefunction in a specific state $`S_iL_i\pi _i`$ or level $`J_i\pi _i`$, $`\theta _i`$ is the wavefunction of the interacting (N+1)th electron in a channel labeled as $`S_iL_i(J_i)\pi _ik_i^2\mathrm{}_i(SL\pi orJ\pi )`$; $`k_i^2`$ is the incident kinetic energy. $`\mathrm{\Phi }_j`$ is the correlation functions of (e+ion) system that compensates the orthogonality condition and short range correlation interations. The complex resonant structures in photoionization, recombination, and in electron impact excitation are included through channel couplings.

Relativistic effects are included through Breit-Pauli approximation in intermediate coupling. The (N+1)-electron Hamiltonian in the Breit-Pauli approximation, as adopted in the Iron Project, is

$$H_{N+1}^{\mathrm{BP}}=H_{N+1}^{NR}+H_{N+1}^{\mathrm{mass}}+H_{N+1}^{\mathrm{Dar}}+H_{N+1}^{\mathrm{so}},$$
(2)
where non-relativisitc Hamiltonian is

$$H_{N+1}^{NR}=\underset{i=1}{\overset{N+1}{}}\left\{_i^2\frac{2Z}{r_i}+\underset{j>i}{\overset{N+1}{}}\frac{2}{r_{ij}}\right\}.$$
(3)
$`H_{N+1}^{\mathrm{mass}}`$ is the mass correction term, $`H_{N+1}^{\mathrm{Dar}}`$ is the Darwin term, $`H_{N+1}^{\mathrm{so}}`$ is the spin-orbit interaction term. Spin-orbit interaction splits the LS terms into fine-structure levels labeled by $`J\pi `$ where $`J`$ is the total angular momentum. Solutions of the Schrodinger equation, $`H_{N+1}^{BP}\mathrm{\Psi }=\mathrm{E}\mathrm{\Psi }`$ which becomes a set of coupled equations with the CC expansion, give the bound wavefunctions, $`\mathrm{\Psi }_B`$, for negative energies, E $`<`$ 0, and continuun wavefunction, $`\mathrm{\Psi }_F`$, for positive energies, E $``$ 0.

The transition matrix elements for various atomic processes are:
$`<\mathrm{\Psi }_B||𝐃||\mathrm{\Psi }_F>`$ for photoionization and recombination,
$`<\mathrm{\Psi }_B||𝐃||\mathrm{\Psi }_B^{}>`$ for oscillator strength,
$`<\mathrm{\Psi }_F|H(e+ion)|\mathrm{\Psi }_F^{}>`$ for electron impact excitation,
where D is the dipole operator.

The transition matrix element with the dipole operator can be reduced to the generalized line strength defined, in either length or velocity form, as

$$S_\mathrm{L}=\left|\mathrm{\Psi }_f|\underset{j=1}{\overset{N+1}{}}r_j|\mathrm{\Psi }_i\right|^2,S_\mathrm{V}=\omega ^2\left|\mathrm{\Psi }_f|\underset{j=1}{\overset{N+1}{}}\frac{}{r_j}|\mathrm{\Psi }_i\right|^2.$$
(4)
where $`\omega `$ is the incident photon energy in Rydberg units, and $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\mathrm{i}`$ and $`\mathrm{\Psi }_\mathrm{f}`$ are the wave functions representing the initial and final states, respectively.

The oscillator strength $`f_{ij}`$ and the transition probability $`A_{ji}`$ for the bound-bound transition can be obtained from $`S`$ as

$$f_{ij}=\frac{E_{ji}}{3g_i}S,A_{ji}(a.u.)=\frac{1}{2}\alpha ^3\frac{g_i}{g_j}E_{ji}^2f_{ij},$$
(5)
where $`E_{ji}`$ is the transition energy, $`\alpha `$ is the fine structure constant, and $`g_i`$, $`g_j`$ are the statistical weight factors of the initial and final states. The lifetime, $`\tau _j`$, of a level $`j`$ can be obtained from the transition probabilities decaying to the lower levels as $`\tau _j=(_iA_{ji}(s^1))^1`$, where $`A_{ji}(s^1)=\frac{A_{ji}(a.u.)}{\tau _0}`$ and $`\tau _0=2.4191\times 10^{17}`$s.

The photoionization cross section ($`\sigma _{PI}`$) is proportional to the generalized line strength ($`S`$),

$$\sigma _{PI}=\frac{4\pi }{3c}\frac{1}{g_i}\omega S.$$
(6)
The calculations of total electron-ion recombination employs a new unified treatment (Nahar & Pradhan 1994,1995). The method considers the infinite number of recombining states and incorporates the radiative and dielectronic recombinations, RR and DR, in a unified manner. The contributions to recombination from states with $`n`$ 10 are obtained from $`\sigma _{PI}`$ using principle of detailed balance, while the resonant contributions from states with 10 $`<n\mathrm{}`$ are obtained from an extension of the DR theory of Bell & Seaton (1985).

The recombination cross section, $`\sigma _{RC}`$, is related to $`\sigma _{PI}`$ through the principle of detailed balance,

$$\sigma _{RC}=\sigma _{PI}\frac{g_i}{g_j}\frac{h^2\omega ^2}{4\pi ^2m^2c^2v^2}.$$
(7)
The recombination rate coefficient, $`\alpha _{RC}`$, is obtained as

$$\alpha _{RC}(T)=_0^{\mathrm{}}vf(v)\sigma _{RC}𝑑v,$$
(8)
where $`f(v)`$ is the Maxwellian velocity distribution function. The total $`\alpha _{RC}`$ is obtained from contributions from infinite number of recombined states.

The collision strength for transition by electron impact excitation from the initial state of the target ion $`S_iL_i`$ to the final state $`S_jL_j`$ is given by

$$\mathrm{\Omega }(S_iL_iS_jL_j)=\frac{1}{2}\underset{SL\pi }{}\underset{l_il_j}{}(2S+1)(2L+1)|𝐒^{SL\pi }(S_iL_il_iS_jL_jl_j)|^2,$$
(9)
where $`𝐒`$ is the scattering matrix. The effective collision strength or the Maxwellian averaged collision strength can be obtained as

$$\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(T)=_0^{\mathrm{}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{ij}(ϵ_j)e^{\frac{ϵ_j}{kT}}d(ϵ_j/kT).$$
(10)
which give the excitation rate coefficient, $`q_{ij}(T)=(8.63\times 10^6/\omega _iT^{1/2})e^{E_{ij}/kT}\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(T)`$ in $`cm^3s^1`$. where $`T`$ is in K, $`E_{ij}=E_jE_i`$, $`E_i<E_j`$ are in Rydbergs (1/kT = 157885/T), and $`j`$ is the excited upper state.

## 3. Results and Discussions

Sample results for each atomic process are presented, e.g., for $`f`$-values, $`\sigma _{PI}`$, $`\alpha _R(T)`$, and $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(T)`$, in the following subsections.

### 3.1. Bound-Bound transitions

Due to fine structure, extensive sets of data for $`f`$\- and $`A`$-values can be obtained for a large number of bound-bound transitions using the Breit-Pauli R-matrix method. In contrast to dipole allowed $`LS`$ multiplets, BPRM method includes relativistic effects, and consideration of both the dipole allowed and intercombination transitions. The fine structure energy levels are analysed with quantum defects to obtain the spectroscopic identification, $`(C_tS_tL_tJ_t\pi _tn\mathrm{})SLJ\pi `$ where $`(C_tS_tL_tJ_t\pi _t)`$ denotes the core configuration, spin, orbital, total angular momenta and parity, $`nl`$ is configuration of the outer or valence electron, $`SL`$ are the possible spin and orbital angular momenta, and $`J\pi `$ are the total angular momentum and parity of the (N+1)-electron system. The fobidden quadrupole (E2) and magnetic dipole (M1) transitions are treated with atomic structure calculations using codes such as SUPERSTUCTURE (Eissner et al. 1974).

Accurate fine structure transition probabilities have been obtained for a number of ions such as:
Li-like: C IV, N V, O VI, F VII, Ne VIII, Na IX, Mg X, Al XI, Si XII, S XIV, Ar XVI, Ca XVIII, Ti XX, Cr XXII, Ni XXVI
Fe ions: Fe V, Fe XVII, Fe XXI, Fe XXIII, Fe XXIV, Fe XXV
Other ions: C II, C III, O IV, S II, Ar XIII

The first large-scale application of the BPRM method for a complex ion, Fe V, resulted in 3865 fine structure energy levels, compared to 179 observed, and about 1.46 million $`f`$\- and $`A`$values for dipole allowed and intercombination (E1) transitions and 362 forbidden (E2,M1) transitions (Nahar et al. 2000). Table I presents a sample with complete spectroscopic identification of the transition array $`3d^4(^4D)3d^3(^4F)4p(^5F^o)`$ in Fe V.

### 3.2. Photoionization and Recombination

The photoionization cross sections, $`\sigma _{PI}`$, are calculated including autoionizing resonances that can enhance the background cross sections considerably. Fig. 1 shows the photoionization cross sections of the gound states of Fe I to Fe V (Bautista & Pradhan 1998). Extensive resonances dominate the cross sections for these complex ions. The enhancement in the backgound is up to three orders of magnitude for Fe I, over an order or magnitude for Fe II, and $``$ 50% for Fe III.

For simpler systems the accuracy of theoretical cross sections can be tested against experimental data. Very precise measurements of $`\sigma _{PI}`$ are now being carried out at a few places, such as the Advanced Light Source at Berkeley (e.g. Covington et al. 2001), the merged photon-ion beam set-up at Aahus University (Kjeldsen et al. 1999), and a synchroton based experiment at University of Paris-Sud (Wuilleumier et al., private communication). An example of the comparison of ground state photoionization cross sections of C II, with very good agreement with experiment, is shown in Fig. 2. Theoretical calculations include relativistic fine structure.

An example of the total unified recombination rate coefficient $`\alpha _R(T)`$ for O III is presented in Fig. 3 (solid) (Nahar 1998). The earlier results are RR rates (dashed, Pequignot et al. 1991), low temperature DR rates (dotted, Nussbaumer & Storey 1983), high temperature DR rates by Badnell & Pindzolla (1990, short-dash-long-dash) and by Shull & Steenberg (1982, dot-desh). Differences can be noticed between the present unified values and the sum of the earlier (RR+DR) results, especially in the low and intermediate temperature. Compared to the earlier Shull & Steenberg results, autoionization into excited levels in the high temperature region reduces the recombination rates significantly.

The unified treatment for the total recombination provides rates that are valid over a wide range of temperatures for all practical purposes in contrast to addition of RR and DR rates obtained using different approximations for different temperature ranges. The method enables obtaining self-consistent sets of photoionization and recombination cross sections by using the identical wavefunction expansion for both the inverse processes. Following is the list of atoms and ions for which self-consistent sets of $`\sigma _{PI}`$ and $`\alpha _R(T)`$ have so far been obtained for over 45 ions (e.g. Nahar & Pradhan 1997, $`http://www.astronomy.ohiostate.edu/pradhan`$):

Carbon: C I, C II, C III, C IV, C V, C VI
Nitrogen: N I, N II, N II, N IV, N V, N VI, N VI
Oxygen: O I, O II, O III, O IV, O V, O VI, O VII, O VII
Iron: Fe I, Fe II, Fe III, Fe IV, Fe V, Fe XIII, Fe XVII, Fe XXI, Fe XXIV, Fe XXV, Fe XXVI
C-like: F IV, Ne V, Na VI, Mg VII, Al VIII, Si IX, S XI, Ar XIII, Ca XV
Other ions: Si I, Si II, S II, S III, Ar V, Ca VII, Ni II

The data include the state specific recombination rates for hundreds of bound levels with n$``$ 10 for each ion.

The self-consistent sets of photoionization/recombination data include new photoionization cross sections that are generally an improvement over the OP data since more extensive and accurate eigenfunction expansions are employed.

### 3.3. Electron Impact Excitation

Reviews and compilations of available theoretical data sources are: An evaluated compilation of theoretical data sources for electron-impact excitation of atomic ions, (A.K. Pradhan & J.W. Gallagher, Atomic Data and Nuclear Data Tables, 52, 227, 1992), and Electron Collisions with Atomic Ions (A.K. Pradhan & H.L. Zhang, in LANDÖLT-BORNSTEIN Volume Atomic Collisions, Ed. Y. Itikawa, Springer-Verlag, in press).

A table of recommended data for effective collision strengths and A-values for nebular ions is available on-line from www.astronomy.ohio-state.edu/$``$pradhan

The aim of the IP is to compute collisional data for the iron-peak elements in various ionization stages. Of the 50 publications in the ”Atomic data from the IRON Project” series in Astronomy and Astrophysics journal, most are on collisional strengths. At present the Iron Project website is maintained by Keith Butler at: $`www.usm.unimuenchen.de/people/ip/ironproject.html`$

An example of IP calculations for iron ions is the recent work on Fe VI (Chen & Pradhan 1999). Fig. 4 presents the detailed collision strength $`\mathrm{\Omega }(E)`$ showing extensive resonance structure. Previous calculations neglecting resonances seriously underestimate the Maxwellian averaged effective collision strength $`\mathrm{{\rm Y}}(T)`$ (Eq. 10) by several factors.

## 4. TIPTOPBASE: atomic radiative and collisional data

The existing electronic archive for the OP data, TOPbase ($`http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov`$ at Goddard, NASA and $`http://vizier.ustrasbg.fr/OP.html`$ at CDS) contain (i) photoionization cross sections of bound $`LS`$ terms for $``$ 200 ions with Z = 1 - 14, 16, 18, 20, 26, (ii) energy levels and transition probabilities ($`10^7f`$-values), (iii) monochromatic and Rosseland mean opacities (at CDS only)

The new database, TIPTOPbase (under development, C. Mendoza & the OP/IP team) will have radiative and collisional data from the OP and the IP. The data include:

(i) All data from TOPbase (and replacement of improved data), (ii) collisional data for iron and iron peak elements, (iii) new elements through all ionization stages: P, Cl, K, as well as selected ions such as Ni II and Ni III, (iv) updated sets of radiative data from new CC calculations, (v) ”Tail” photoionization cross sections at high energies that include inner-shell ionization, (vi) total and level specific recombination rate coefficients, (vi) additional data for $`f`$-values including inner-shell excitations in iron ions Fe VIII - XIII (”PLUS” data) calculated with SUPERSTRUCTURE, (vii) radiative data ($`\sigma _{PI}`$ and $`f`$-values) for fine structure levels including relativistic effects, (viii) on-line computational facilities for opacities and radiative accelerations for user-specified mixtures of elements (“customized” opacities and radiative forces) (see IP in Extended Abstracts).

## 5. Conclusion

The current status of large-scale ab initio close coupling R-matrix calculations for radiative and collisional processes is reported. The Iron Project Breit Pauli R-matrix radiative calculations include large numbers of dipole allowed and intercombination transitions. Self-consistent sets of atomic data for photoionization and unified (electron-ion) recombination (including RR and DR) are obtained, and should yield more accurate photoionization models. Work is in progress for heavy ions of the iron group elements.

#### Acknowledgments.

This work is supported partially by the U.S. National Science Foundation and NASA.

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The Opacity Project 1 and 2, compiled by the Opacity Project team (Institute of Physices, London, UK, 1995, 1996)