Resonant auger destruction and iron Kα spectra in compact X-ray sources

We examine the effects of resonant Auger destruction in modifying the intensities and flux distributions of K alpha spectra from iron L-shell ions. Applications include X-ray irradiated stellar winds in X-ray binaries and accretion disk atmospheres. Using detailed atomic models, we find that resonant Auger destruction is selective, in that only a subset of the emitted Ka lines is highly attenuated. We also show that that the local excitation conditions can have a dramatic effect on the Ka emissivity spectrum.