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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
Ratios of intensities of spectral lines produced in the radiative decay of collisionally-excited levels of atomic ions are versatile indicators of electron density in astrophysical plasmas when one of the lines involves a metastable level (see the review by Feldman 1981 and references therein). Radiative transition probabilities (A-values) and electron excitation cross sections are necessary for accurate, quantitative analyses of these plasmas. The work reported here is part of a program of measurements of astrophysically interesting A-values and radiative lifetimes (see the review by Smith et al. 1984); until we began, such anaylyses of astrophysical plasmas depended upon unconfirmed calculated A-values.