We present the results of lifetime measurements made using beam-foil techniques on levels of astrophysical interest in Pb ii producing lines at 1203.6 ? (6s6p2 ) and 1433.9 ? ( ). We also report the first detection of the Pb ii line in the interstellar medium (ISM) from an analysis of archival spectra acquired by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) on board the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The oscillator strengths derived from our experimental lifetimes for Pb ii , 1433 are generally consistent with recent theoretical results, including our own relativistic calculations. Our analysis of high-resolution HST/STIS spectra helps to confirm the relative strengths of the Pb ii , 1433 lines. However, the oscillator strength that we obtain for Pb ii (0.321 ± 0.034) is significantly smaller than earlier theoretical values, which have been used to study the abundance of Pb in the ISM. Our revised oscillator strength for yields an increase in the interstellar abundance of Pb of 0.43 dex over determinations based on the value given by Morton, indicating that the depletion of Pb onto interstellar dust grains is less severe than previously thought.
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