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In response to the Comment written by Zhang et al. [Phys. Rev. A 82, 036701 (2010)] we show that the main ideas and results (about the physics and method) reported in our paper [Phys. Rev. A 79, 062715 (2009)] still appear to be correct. Although none of the conjectures given in the Comment about the potential problems in our code are correct, there was a small error in our code, so the part of our paper with numerical data, presented to support our method, appears to be incorrect. The wealth of resonance features in the x-ray line $3D$ demonstrated in our paper still appears to be real and is reconfirmed by a revised calculation with the error fixed.

We have developed a method within the Dirac $R$-matrix theory to calculate x-ray line polarization resulting from electron-impact excitation to excited-state magnetic sublevels of complex ions. We apply this method to the excitation of two well-known x-ray lines of Fe XVII, $3C$ $(\ensuremath{\lambda}=15.015\text{ }\text{\AA{}})$ and $3D$ $(\ensuremath{\lambda}=15.262\text{ }\text{\AA{}})$. We find strong resonance effects which contribute to complicated energy dependence in the polarization. Our results show large differences, up to 30% or more, from earlier theoretical work, and thus provide a stimulus for direct experimental measurement of the $3C$ and $3D$ line polarizations and further theoretical studies.

We present detailed collisional-radiative modeling for a benchmark x-ray spectrum of highly charged tungsten ions in the range between 3 and $10\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{\AA{}}$ produced in an electron beam ion trap (EBIT) with a beam energy of $4.08\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{keV}$. Remarkably good agreement between calculated and measured spectra was obtained without adjustable parameters, highlighting the well-controlled experimental conditions and the sophistication of the kinetic simulation of the non-Maxwellian tungsten plasma. This agreement permitted the identification of spectral lines from Cu-like ${\mathrm{W}}^{45+}$ and Ni-like ${\mathrm{W}}^{46+}$ ions, led to the reinterpretation of a previously known line in Ni-like ion as an overlap of electric-quadrupole and magnetic-octupole lines, and revealed subtle features in the x-ray spectrum arising from the dominance of forbidden transitions between excited states. The importance of level population mechanisms specific to the EBIT plasma is discussed as well.

Wavelength measurements of n=3 to n=2 transitions in neonlike ${\mathrm{Xe}}^{44+}$, ${\mathrm{La}}^{47+}$, ${\mathrm{Nd}}^{50+}$, and ${\mathrm{Eu}}^{53+}$ have been made using a high-resolution Bragg-crystal spectrometer on the Princeton Large Torus tokamak. The measurements cover the wavelength regions 2.00--3.00 A\r{} and include the electric dipole and the electric and magnetic quadrupole transitions. The measured wavelengths are compared to energy levels obtained from a multiconfigurational Dirac-Fock calculation. Systematic differences between the experimental and theoretical values are found, which vary smoothly with atomic number. The magnitude of the differences depends on the particular type of transition and ranges from -2.8 eV to +2.2 eV. Inclusion of electron correlation corrections due to ground-state correlations and (super-) Coster-Kronig-type fluctuations in the theoretical energies is shown to reduce the differences for some but not all types of transitions.

The intercombination lines of the zinc sequence corresponding to the transition 4s4p ${}^{3}$${P}_{1}$\ensuremath{\rightarrow}4${s}^{2}$ ${}^{1}$${S}_{0}$ have been observed for xenon, lanthanum, neodymium, europium, gadolinium, and ytterbium in the Princeton Large Torus tokamak discharges.