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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 May 2016
Recently, Chang et. al. (1992) and Carlsson, Rutten and Shchukina (1992) (CRS) demonstrated the non-LTE formation mechanism behind the 12 μm Mg I emission lines (6g–7h, 6h–7i) observed in the solar spectrum (Murcray et. al., 1981). CRS stress the generality of this mechanism showing that it is a natural consequence of the recombination flow from the large Mg II reservoir through the Rydberg levels of Mg I. We have noted the close parallel between Mg I in the solar atmosphere and Mg II in the atmospheres of B stars (where Mg III plays the role of the reservoir) and investigated the operation of this mechanism in high-ℓ infrared transitions of Mg II. We have employed a 58 level Mg II atom including all energy levels through n = 25 and a total of 491 linearized radiative transitions. The coupled equations of radiative transfer and statistical equilibrium were solved with the MULTI code in its local operator form (Carlsson, 1992).