Work

Fine-structure splittings in low-lying triplet states of the carbon atom

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: We present benchmark theoretical values of the fine-structure splittings in the ground 3 P e and low-lying excited 3 P e and 3 D e states of the C 12 , C 13 , and C 14 isotopes of the neutral carbon atom. We handle the correlations in the dynamics of all particles (six electrons and a nucleus) in all considered states in the practically exact manner by employing very large expansions of the wave functions in terms of all-particle explicitly correlated Gaussian basis sets, whose nonlinear parameters were extensively optimized. The resulting wave functions were used to compute the fine-structure splittings for the three isotopes by including the leading-order spin-orbit and electron spin-spin corrections ( ∝ α 2 ) , contribution from the electron anomalous magnetic moment ( ∝ α 3 ) , and by taking into account the most significant couplings between the targeted and neighboring electronic states ( ∝ α 4 ) . Our results show a notable improvement in accuracy compared to any previous theoretical calculations, are in good agreement with the best available experimental data, and demonstrate that the calculations of six-electron systems are now sufficiently advanced for precision measurement applications.

Source: Physical Review Research

DOI: 10.1103/v4jk-j7c9

Authors: Pavel Rzhevskii, Dmitry Tumakov, Toreniyaz Shomenov, Sergiy Bubin

Institutions: Nazarbayev University, Universität Hamburg

Language: English

Topic: Atomic and Molecular Physics

Subfield: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,625

Funder: Nazarbayev University