Collisional-rate coefficients for sodiumlike Ar VIII ions.

Determination of collisional-excitation-rate coefficients for sodium-like Ar VIII ions theoretically using the Coulomb-Born approximation as well as experimentally from the absolute intensities of lines emitted by these ions in well-diagnosed plasmas whose parameters were obtained from the analysis of scattered laser light. These plasmas were produced in a theta-pinch device. The agreement between theory and experiment is within the estimated accuracy of plus or minus 50% for excitation from the ground state to the n = 3 and n = 4 levels, whereas some deviations are observed for two transitions to the n = 5 levels at lower temperatures. A rate coefficient for ionization was obtained from the time dependence of the ionization.