Abstract

New branching fraction measurements in Hf II from FTS data are described and compared to recently published independent measurements. Good agreement is found in this comparison, but there is still room for improvement in the measurement of weak branches. The strongest lines of Hf II have been detected in low metalicity stars, and thus Hf has potential as a reference element in nucleocosmochronometry. Although there is currently no strong astrophysical motivation for making accurate lab measurements on the weak branches of low abundance elements such as Hf, there is motivation to make very accurate transition probability measurements on weak lines of high abundance Fe-group species.

© 2007 Optical Society of America