Overview

This book is a comprehensive guide to the physics and observations of Radio Recombination Lines from astronomical sources, written for astronomers, physicists, and graduate students. It is suitable for a graduate-level textbook. It includes the history of RRL detections, the astrophysics underlying their intensities and line shapes including topics like departures from LTE and Stark broadening, the maximum possible size of an atom, as well as detailed descriptions of the astronomical topics for which RRLs have proved to be effective tools. The text includes more than 250 equations and 110 illustrations. It also contains hundreds of specific references to the astronomical literature to enable readers to explore additional details. The appendix includes supplementary information such as the detailed physics underlying the Bohr atomic model, tables of RRL frequencies including fine structure components, techniques for calculating hydrogenic oscillator strengths, FORTRAN code for calculating departure coefficients, and a discussion with formulas for converting observational (telescope) intensity units to astrophysical ones.

Full Product Details

Author:   M.A. Gordon ,  Roman L. Sorochenko
Publisher:   Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Imprint:   Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
Edition:   2002 ed.
Volume:   282
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.20cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.730kg
ISBN:  

9781402010163

ISBN 10:   1402010168
Pages:   358
Publication Date:   30 November 2002
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Undergraduate ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

1 Introduction.- 1.1 The Cosmos as a Laboratory.- 1.2 Spectral Lines in Astronomy.- 1.3 The Bohr Atom.- 1.4 Spectral Lines in Radio Astronomy.- 2 RRLs and Atomic Physics.- 2.1 The First Surprising Results: The Absence of Stark Broadening.- 2.2 The Broadening of Radio Recombination Lines.- 2.3 Intensity of Radio Recombination Lines.- 2.4 The Range of RRL Studies.- 2.5 How Many Atomic Levels Can Exist?.- 2.6 Summary.- 3 RRLs — Tools for Astronomers.- 3.1 Physical Conditions in H II Regions.- 3.2 Ionized Hydrogen and Helium in the Galaxy.- 3.3 Exploration of the Cold ISM by RRLs.- 3.4 RRLs from Stars and Stellar Envelopes.- 3.5 RRLs from Extragalactic Objects.- A Constants.- A.1 Miscellaneous Constants.- A.2 Rydberg Constants.- A.2.1 Reduced Mass.- A.2.2 Table of Rydberg Constants.- B Tables of Line Frequencies.- B.1 Frequencies Below 100 GHz.- B.2 Frequencies Above 100 GHz.- B.3 FORTRAN Code for Fine-Structure Frequencies.- C Supplemental Calculations.- C.1 Early Estimates of Stark Broadening.- C.2 Refinements to the Bohr Model.- D Hydrogen Oscillator Strengths.- D.1 Population of Atomic Sublevels.- D.2 Calculation of Oscillator Strengths.- D.3 Radial Matrix Integrals Code.- E Departure Coefficients.- E.1 FORTRAN Code for Calculating bn Values.- F Observational Units.- F.1 What Radio Telescopes Measure.- F.2 How Radio Telescopes Measure.- F.2.1 Sources smaller than the beam size.- F.2.2 Sources larger than the beam size.- F.2.3 Antenna temperature scale.- Author Index.- References.

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