On the Interpretation of Radio Recombination Line Observations

Abstract

A substantial amount of data from atomic physics is required for the interpretation of radio recombination line observations. A critical review of the available data is presented, and it is concluded that possible errors in this data are no larger than the errors which typically occur in the observational results. The equation of transfer for the line radiation is discussed and a convenient linearized form is obtained. The use of this form is shown to be entirely adequate. The use of constant density models is discussed and it is shown that such models cannot explain all of the observational results for line-to-continuum ratios and line profiles. In particular, observations of high n