The structure of coronal plasma in active stellar coronae from density measurements

Abstract

We have analyzed high-resolution X-ray spectra of a sample of 22 active stars observed with the High Energy Transmission Grating Spectrometer (HETGS) on Chandra in order to investigate their coronal plasma density, using the lines of the He-like ions O VII, Mg XI, and Si XIII. Si XII lines in all stars of the sample axe compatible with the low-density limit (i.e. n(e) < 10(13) cm(-3)); Mg XI lines reveal the presence of high plasma densities up to a few 10(12) cm(-3) for most of the sources with higher X-ray luminosity (>= 10(30) erg/s); O VII lines yield much lower densities of a few 10(10) cm(-3). Our results indicate that the "hot" and "cool" plasma resides in physically different structures. Our findings imply remarkably compact coronal structures, especially for the hotter (similar to 7 MK) plasma emitting the Mg xi lines characterized by coronal surface filling factor, f(MgXI), ranging from 10(-4) to 10(-1), while we find f(OVII) values from a few 10(-3) up to similar to 1 for the cooler (similar to 2 MK) plasma emitting the O VII lines.