H-alpha and Free-Free Emission from the WIM
  Recent observations have found the ratio of H-alpha to free-free radio
continuum to be surprisingly high in the diffuse ionized ISM (the so-called
WIM), corresponding to an electron temperature of only ~3000K. Such low
temperatures were unexpected in gas that was presumed to be photoionized. We
consider a 3-component model for the observed diffuse emission, consisting of a
mix of (1) photoionized gas, (2) gas that is recombining and cooling, and (3)
cool H I gas. This model can successfully reproduce the observed intensities of
free-free continuum, H-alpha, and collisionally-excited lines such as NII 6583.
To reproduce the low observed value of free-free to H-alpha, the PAH abundance
in the photoionized regions must be lowered by a factor ~3, and ~20% of the
diffuse H-alpha must be reflected from dust grains, as suggested by Wood &
Reynolds (1999).
