Institute for Advanced Study Informal Astrophysics Seminar

I will discuss recent hydrodynamic and emission models for the shock transition zone in Balmer-dominated SNRs. I will emphasize the role of atomic interactions in producing distinct populations of hot neutral hydrogen atoms, which emit the observed ``broad'' component of the H-alpha line spectrum observed in these objects. I will discuss the implications of our calculations for interpreting observations and the applicability of our general model to other classes of objects.