There are conspicuous gaps in the table, and it is to be feared that many of them are likely to remain unfilled. The spectra of the neutral atoms of carbon, phosphorus, and nitrogen have hitherto defied analysis, and our knowledge of the corresponding ionization potentials must therefore depend on physical methods. For carbon, silicon, and similar refractory materials, such methods are difficult of application; the same applies to the metals. It is therefore probable that the ionization potentials of the neutral atoms of several of the lighter elements, of the platinum metals, and of the rare earths, will remain unknown or uncertain for some time to come. None of the atoms thus omitted is of immediate astrophysical importance.
As shown in the table, the values for the ionized and doubly ionized light atoms O+, O++, C++, N++, S+, and S++ are deduced only astrophysically. It may be hoped that the spectra of these atoms will soon be arranged in series, so that an accurate value of the ionization potential may be available, in place of the approximate one deduced from the stellar evidence, for the corresponding absorption lines are of importance in the spectra of the hotter stars.
The spectroscopic ionization potentials have an advantage over the physical values, in that the corresponding state of the atom is known with certainty, whereas physical methods can in general only detect some critical potential, without assigning it definitely to a particular transition. For example, it seems likely that in some cases the first ionization, whether caused by incident radiation or by electron impacts, corresponds to the loss of an electron by the molecule:
where
represents the atom, and
the electron. The effect of increased excitation would then be the decomposition
