The radio source 3C84, in NGC1275, has a two sided structure on parsec
scales. The northern feature, presumed to be associated with a jet moving away
from the Earth, shows strong evidence for free-free absorption. The ionized gas
responsible for that absorption would be a source of detectable stimulated
recombination line emission for a wide range of physical conditions. The VLBA
has been used to search for the H65α hydrogen recombination line. The
line is only expected to be seen against the northern feature which contains a
small fraction of the total radio flux density. This spatial discrimination
significantly aids the search for a weak line. No line was seen, with upper
limits of roughly 15% of the continuum over a velocity range of 1486 km/s with
resolutions up to 6.6 km/s. In the absence of a strong radiation field, this
would imply that the free-free absorbing gas has a wide velocity width, is
moving rapidly relative to the systemic velocity, or is concentrated in a thin,
high density structure. All of these possibilities are reasonably likely close
to an AGN. However, in the intense radiation environment of the AGN, even
considering only the radiation we actually observe passing through the
free-free absorbing gas, the non-detection is probably assured by a combination
of saturation and radiation damping.Comment: 14 pages with 4 postscript figures. Accepted for publication in the
April 2003 Astronomical Journa
