BREIT-PAULI TRANSITION PROBABILITIES AND ELECTRON EXCITATION COLLISION STRENGTHS FOR SINGLY IONIZED SULFUR

New improved calculations are reported for transition probabilities and electron impact excitation collision strengths for the astrophysically important lines in S II. The collision strengths have been calculated in the close-coupling approximation using the B-spline Breit-Pauli R-matrix method. The multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock method with term-dependent non-orthogonal orbitals is employed for an accurate representation of the target wave functions. The close-coupling expansion includes 70 bound levels of S II covering all possible terms of the ground 3s 23p 3 and singly excited 3s3p 4, 3s 23p 23d, 3s 23p 24s, and 3s 23p 24p configurations. The present calculations are more extensive than previous ones, leading to a total 2415 transitions between fine-structure levels. The effective collision strengths are obtained by averaging the electron collision strengths over a Maxwellian distribution of velocities and these are tabulated for all fine-structure transitions at electron temperatures in the range from 5000 to 100,000 K. The present results are compared with a variety of other close-coupling calculations and available experimental data. There is an overall good agreement with the recent 18-state calculations by Ramsbottom, Bell, and Stafford and with the 19-state calculations by Tayal for the most part, but some significant differences are also noted for some transitions.