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We present the first definitive measurement of the charge state distribution of a highly ionized gold plasma in coronal equilibrium. The experiment utilized the Livermore electron beam ion trap EBIT-II in a novel configuration to create a plasma with a Maxwellian temperature of 2.5 keV. The charge balance in the plasma was inferred from spectral line emission measurements which accounted for charge exchange effects. The measured average ionization state was 46.8+/-0.75. This differs from the predictions of two modeling codes by up to four charge states.
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Wong et al. (2003) studied this question.
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