Collaborations

We have made successful applications of machine intelligence in our labour intensive analysis procedures with guidance from experts at the Oxford Robotics Insititute (ORI). Specifically, the reconstruction of atomic energy levels with observed spectral lines is, for the first time, approached by deep reinforcement learning with graph neural networks. We anticipate further collaboration with the AI researchers as we aim to improve our automation frameworks.

Our first lanthanide investigation (Nd III) were made possible by collaborations with scientists at the RAS. Dr Alexander Ryabtsev, having worked previously on Nd III, offered analytical, theoretical, and data collaboration. He is arguably the finest atomic spectroscopist of today and remains active as a principle researcher at the Institute of Spectroscopy of the RAS. Dr Tatiana Ryabchikova is an astrophysicist at the Institute of Astronomy of the RAS, who is an expert in stellar spectral modelling and involved in the Vienna Atomic Line Database (VALD). She enabled us the pivotal incoporation of stellar spectra in atomic structure analyses.

We currently work with Dr Maria Teresa Belmonte Sainz-Ezquerra and her laboratory at the Unviersity of Valladolid for Nd III transition probabilities. In the future, we aim to continue extending our transition probability measurements with the unique monochromator developed at her laboratory. She was previously a post-doctoral reseacher at the AMSG and is now proudly a distinguished researcher. 

NIST manages the NIST Atomic Spectra Database with critically compiled atomic data used by the scientific community and industries world-wide. The institution is also home to several unique high resolution spectrometers. Most notably, the 10.7 m focal length Normal Incidence Vacuum Spectrograph (NIVS) can record spectra at wavelengths shorter than the lower wavelength limit of our VUV FTS at the AMSG, often containing crucial data for our analyses. Our collaborations and and communications with the researchers at the NIST atomic spectroscopy group is central to the reliability and quality of our scientific contributions.

Prof. H. M. Uylings and Prof. A. J. J. Raassen are leading experts in the orthogonal operators method of semi-empirical calculations of atomic structure, which are the most accurate calculations achievable. Their calculations were absolutely indispensable in our investigations on Co and Ni. 

Atomic spectroscopy at Sorbonne University is lead by Prof. Lydia W.-Ü Tchang-Brillet, their VUV spectrography reach below the wavelength limit of our VUV FTS and they record spectra with spark dischage sources, which produce spectra of species above the second ionisation stages (not feasible with our light sources). Part of Prof. Lydia W.-Ü Tchang-Brillet's research have always heavily involved the open 4f-subshell species, overlapping with our interests at the AMSG and her kind collaborations have been invaluable.

We exchange our findings and spectral data with scientists at Malmö University in Sweden, who share very similar research motivations as the AMSG. Prof. Henrik Hartman, Prof. Per Jönsson, and Prof. Hampus Nilsson lead the atomic structure and spectrum research at Malmö University, cover extensive instrumental and theoretical expertise, and succeed the renowned atomic physics research at Lund University.