Laboratory Astrophysics with Highly Charged Ions

A detailed study of the physics of highly charged ions (HCIs) is critical for a deep understanding of observed phenomena resulting from interactions of HCIs with neutral atoms in astrophysical and fusion environments. Specifically, the charge transfer rates and spectroscopy of the subsequent decay fluorescence are of great interest to these communities. Progress towards a laboratory-based investigation of these rates will be presented. The experiment takes advantage of an energy and charge state selected beam of HCIs from the recently upgraded Clemson University EBIT (CUEBIT).