Astr 501 | Lecture 22 | Fall 2018
Meghnad Saha
Astronomy 501
Lecture 22, Oct 19 Fall 2018

Lecture Notes: pdf file

Thermodynamics of Atomic States

  • state populations: partition function
  • partition cutoff
  • ionization equilibrium: Saha equation
  • awesome example: cosmic recombination of hydrogen

Radiative Transitions

  • semiclassical approximation
  • transition probabilities
  • dipole approximation
  • selection rules
hydrogen spectrum

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