Astrophysical laser operating in the OI 8446-angstrom line in the Weigelt blobs of eta Carinae
Within the framework of a simple model of photophysical processes in the Weigelt blobs in the vicinity of the luminous blue variable (LBV) star eta Carinae, we explain the presence of the fluorescent < O I > 8446-angstrom and forbidden [O I] 6300-angstrom lines as well as the absence of the allowed O I 7774-angstrom line in spectra recorded with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)/STIS instrument (Gu