Analysis of Breit-Pauli Transition Probabilities for Lines in O III

Abstract

Accurate atomic data are essential for understanding the properties of both O III lines produced by the Bowen fluorescence mechanism and [O III] forbidden lines observed in numerous gaseous nebulae. Improved Breit-Pauli transition probabilities have been published for the carbon sequence. Included were revised data for O III. The present paper analyzes the accuracy of the data specifically for O III by comparison with other theory as well as some recent experiments and observations. For the electric dipole transition probabilities, good agreement is found for allowed Bowen fluorescence lines between predictions of intensity ratios with observed data. For forbidden transitions, the Breit-Pauli magnetic dipole transition operator requires corrections that often are neglected. Good agreement is found when these transition probabilities are computed with multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock methods.