Extended atomic data for oxygen abundance analyses

Abstract

As the most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen and helium, oxygen plays a key role in planetary, stellar, and galactic astrophysics. Its abundance is especially influential in terms of stellar structure and evolution, and as the dominant opacity contributor at the base of the Sun’s convection zone, it is central to the discussion on the solar modelling problem. However, abundance analyses require complete and reliable sets of atomic data. We present extensive atomic data for O I by using the multiconfiguration Dirac–Hartree–Fock and relativistic configuration interaction methods. We provide the lifetimes and transition probabilities for radiative electric dipole transitions and we compare them with results from previous calculations and available measurements. The accuracy of the computed transition rates is evaluated by the differences between the transition rates in Babushkin and Coulomb gauges, as well as via a cancellation factor analysis. Out of the 989 computed transitions in this work, 205 are assigned to the accuracy classes AA-B, that is, with uncertainties smaller than 10%, following the criteria defined by the Atomic Spectra Database from the National Institute of Standards and Technology. We discuss the influence of the new log(gf) values on the solar oxygen abundance, ultimately advocating for log єO = 8.70 ± 0.04.