Decrease in the Intensity of Hydrogen Lines in the Solar Photosphere and Chromosphere

Abstract

IN their study of the number of levels and the population of upper levels of hydrogen, Ivanov-Kholodnyi and Nikol'skii1 state “in prominence and chromospheric spectra, it has been found that near the series limit the lines do not merge because of their broadening and convergence, but instead they disappear because of a rapid fall in intensity”. After reviewing the Inglis–Teller formula2 and the Ecker–Weizel3 solution of the Schrodinger equation for an electron moving in a Debye field, they state “… that the problem of the drop in line intensity toward the series limit has not been solved so far …”.