Quantitative spectroscopy of starburst and quasar emission line regions

Quasars and starburst galaxies are among the most distant objects we can directly observe. Once understood, their emission lines will measure their luminosity and the composition of the interstellar medium of the host galaxy. We will then be able to map out the first generations of stellar processing in the cores of massive galaxies, and directly chart the expansion of the Universe at redshifts z ≤ 5. Such understanding is the long-term goal of our work. It is coupled to short-term questions, especially the ability to simulate a non-equilibrium plasma and predict its spectrum. We outline the steps now being taken to obtain the underlying atomic data base needed to simulate these emission line regions, the large-scale calculations now routinely done, which can explicitly take into account the effects on non-homogeneous emission line regions, and finally the application of these calculations to the unraveling the message held with the spectrum of these objects.