Abstract
view Abstract Citations (59) References (10) Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS The Structure of a Shock Front in Atomic Hydrogen. I. The Effects of Precursor Radiation in the Lyman Continuum. Whitney, Charles A. ; Skalafuris, Angelo J. Abstract As a step toward understanding the spectra of shock waves in stellar atmospheres, we investigate the variations of temperature, density, and electron concentration in a plane steady shock, and we emphasize the effects of the Lyman continuum radiation that passes through the shock front into the preshock gas in order to bring out the essential physical problem, we adopt a two-stream model for the radiation field and make the simplifying assumptions that the cooling behind the shock takes place by radiative recombinations and that the hot region is optically thin to all continuum radiation and very thick to all significant line radiation. We present results obtained by neglecting the effects of precursor radiation and derive an equation giving the photon flux through the shock front in terms of shock velocity and the preshock density and ionization. it is shown that electrons produced in the preshock gas by Lyman continuum radiation cannot recombine before passing through the shock front. A mathematical treatment of the preshock flow is presented, and it is shown that the preshock gas is significantly heated and ionized by precursor radiation, that the region ahead of the shock that is perturbed by Lyman radiation is virtually unobservable except in Lyman radiation, and that the inclusion of precursor radiation significantly raises the gas temperature behind the shock. The calculations agree qualitatively with observations in predicting intense, broad Balmer lines, a weak Balmer continuum, and virtually no emission in other features. Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Pub Date: July 1963 DOI: 10.1086/147627 Bibcode: 1963ApJ...138..200W full text sources ADS | Related Materials (1) Part 2: 1965ApJ...142..351S
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