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Natural masers:

Maser emission from cosmic objects

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Abstract

This paper represents a brief review on some properties of cosmic masers, in particular on OH, H2O, and SiO sources. Emphasis is given to problems of radiative transfer in the maser line as well as in other lines of the masing molecules. The importance of these effects is an essential difference to laboratory lasers.—Differences and similarities between the radiative properties of cosmic masers and other (NLTE) sources of line emission having no population inversion are pointed out.—Various pumping mechanisms suggested for the interpretation of the observations are summarized.

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  1. Lehrstuhl für Theoretische Astrophysik, Universität, D-6900, Heidelberg, Fed. Rep. Germany

    Wilhelm H. Kegel

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  1. Wilhelm H. Kegel
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Kegel, W.H. Natural masers:. Appl. Phys. 9, 1–10 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00901903

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00901903

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