Excitation of N V by electron impact

Inelastic electron impact cross sections are calculated for N V at energies between 1.0 and 16.0 Ryd in a close-coupling expansion over the 2s, 2p, 3s, 3p and 3d states of the ion. The close-coupling method is compared with the unitarized Coulomb-Born approximation and a distorted-wave calculation. Three additional pseudostates labelled 4s, 4p and 4d are included in the close-coupling expansion and are found to be unimportant. The authors attempt to establish the range of validity for the Coulomb-Born method at the given energies. In addition, results are compared with the values obtained by other investigators with particular emphasis on the 1s 2 2s to 1s 2 2p and 1s 2 2s to 1s 2 3p excitation cross sections which play an important role in determining temperatures of hot plasmas and the solar corona. The rate coefficients for 2s to nl transitions agree within experimental error with those of Boland et al. (1970) and Kunze and Johnston (1971).