Classical theory of electron-ion recombination in an ambient gas

It is shown that the standard version of Thomson's (1924) well known theory of electron-ion recombination in an ambient gas is based on an untenable assertion. Retaining his concept of a trapping radius a corrected classical theory is developed. In view of its simplicity it is unexpectedly good at reproducing results obtained by the diffusion method. The electron energy exchange frequency per unit ambient gas number density is judged to be inappropriate to the phenomenon of electron-ion recombination in an ambient gas. During the course of the investigation it is demonstrated that of the several different classical diffusion models of recombination which have been put forward the correct model is the earliest, that due to Pitaevskii (1962).