Realistic ab-initio 3D, radiative-hydrodynamical convection simulations of
the solar granulation have been applied to FeI and FeII line formation. In
contrast to classical analyses based on hydrostatic 1D model atmospheres the
procedure contains no adjustable free parameters but the treatment of the
numerical viscosity in the construction of the 3D, time-dependent,
inhomogeneous model atmosphere and the elemental abundance in the 3D spectral
synthesis. However, the numerical viscosity is introduced purely for numerical
stability purposes and is determined from standard hydrodynamical test cases
with no adjustments allowed to improve the agreement with the observational
constraints from the solar granulation. The non-thermal line broadening is
mainly provided by the Doppler shifts arising from the convective flows in the
solar photosphere and the solar oscillations. The almost perfect agreement
between the predicted temporally and spatially averaged line profiles for weak
Fe lines with the observed profiles and the absence of trends in derived
abundances with line strengths, seem to imply that the micro- and
macroturbulence concepts are obsolete in these 3D analyses. Furthermore, the
theoretical line asymmetries and shifts show a very satisfactory agreement with
observations with an accuracy of typically 50-100 m/s on an absolute velocity
scale. The remaining minor discrepancies point to how the convection
simulations can be refined further.Comment: Accepted for A&