Physics of Thermal Gaseous Nebulae

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Types of Gaseous Nebulae

   • Lawrence H. Aller

   Pages 1-17

3. Spectra of Gaseous Nebulae

   • Lawrence H. Aller

   Pages 18-38

4. Radiative Excitation, Ionization, Recombination, and Fluorescence

   • Lawrence H. Aller

   Pages 39-72

5. Line and Continuous Spectra of Hydrogen and Helium

   • Lawrence H. Aller

   Pages 73-114

6. Collisionally Excited Lines and Plasma Diagnostics

   • Lawrence H. Aller

   Pages 115-152

7. Radiative Equilibrium of a Gaseous Nebula

   • Lawrence H. Aller

   Pages 153-166

8. Nebular Models

   • Lawrence H. Aller

   Pages 167-186

9. Dust and Related Phenomena in Gaseous Nebulae

   • Lawrence H. Aller

   Pages 187-206

10. Shock Waves

    • Lawrence H. Aller

    Pages 207-221

11. Diffuse Nebulae, Wind-Blown Shells, and Planetaries

    • Lawrence H. Aller

    Pages 222-254

12. Chemical Compositions of Gaseous Nebulae

    • Lawrence H. Aller

    Pages 255-290

13. Nebular Compositions, Element Building, and Stellar Evolution

    • Lawrence H. Aller

    Pages 291-314

14. Back Matter

    Pages 315-350

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Gaseous nebulae offer outstanding opportunities to atomic physicists, spectroscopists, plasma experts, and to observers and theoreticians alike for the study of attenuated ionized gases. These nebulae are often dusty, heated by radiation fields and by shocks. They are short-lived phenomena on the scale of a stellar lifetime, but their chemical compositions and internal kinematics may give important clues to advanced stages of stellar evolution. The material herein presented is based on lectures given at the University of Michigan, University of Queensland, University of California, Los Angeles, and in more abbreviated form at the Raman Institute, at the Scuola Internazionale di Trieste, and elsewhere. Much of it is derived origionally from the series "Physical Processes in Gaseous Nebulae" initiated at the Harvard College Observatory in the late 1930s. I have tried to emphasize the basic physics of the mechanisms involved and mention some of the uncertainties that underlie calculations of many basic parameters. Emphasis is placed on ionized plasmas with electron temperatures typically in the neighborhood of 10,OOOoK. Dust and other ingredients of the cold component of the interstellar medium are treated briefly from the point of view of their relation to hot plasmas of H II regions and planetaries. Chemical composition determinations for nebulae are discussed in some detail while the last section deals with interpretations of elemental abundances in the framework of stellar evolution and nucleogenesis. Gaseous nebulae offer some particularly engaging opportunities for studies of stellar evolution.

• Supernova
• Variation
• galaxy
• hydrogen line
• interstellar matter
• nebula
• observatory
• planet
• stars
• stellar
• stellar evolution

`...Professor Aller has done the astronomical community a great service in writing this thoroughly excellent and interesting book. It is a mine of information and its a pleasure to read. It will undoubtedly become a classic book and is required reading for anyone who considers themselves to be an astrophysicist. I have rarely read a book I can commend so highly.'
Astrophysics and Space Science (1985)

• University of California, Los Angeles, USA

  Lawrence H. Aller

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