The Spin Temperature of Warm Interstellar H I

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Abstract
Collisional excitation of the 21cm HI hyperfine transition is not strong enough to thermalize it in warm neutral (``intercloud'') interstellar gas, which we show by simultaneously solving the equations of ionization and collisional equilibrium under typical conditions. Coupling of the 21cm excitation temperature and local gas motions may be established by the Ly-alpha radiation field, but only if strong Galactic Ly-alpha radiation permeates the gas in question. The Ly-alpha radiation tends to impart to the gas its own characteristic temperature, which is determined by the range of gas motions that occur on the spatial scale of the Ly-alpha scattering. In general, the calculation of H I spin temperatures is a more difficult and interesting problem than might have been expected, as is any interpretation of H I spin temperature measurements.

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