Relativistic effects on information measures for hydrogen-like atoms

Position and momentum information measures are evaluated for the ground state of the \emph{relativistic} hydrogen-like atoms. Consequences of the fact that the radial momentum operator is not self-adjoint are explicitly studied, exhibiting fundamental shortcomings of the conventional uncertainty measures in terms of the radial position and momentum variances. The Shannon and R\'enyi entropies, the Fisher information measure, as well as several related information measures, are considered as viable alternatives. Detailed results on the onset of relativistic effects for low nuclear charges, and on the extreme relativistic limit, are presented. The relativistic position density decays exponentially at large $r$, but is singular at the origin. Correspondingly, the momentum density decays as an inverse power of $p$. Both features yield divergent R\'enyi entropies away from a finite vicinity of the Shannon entropy. While the position space information measures can be evaluated analytically for both the nonrelativistic and the relativistic hydrogen atom, this is not the case for the relativistic momentum space. Some of the results allow interesting insight into the significance of recently evaluated Dirac-Fock vs. Hartree-Fock complexity measures for many-electron neutral atoms.Comment: Accepted for publication in the Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematic

Fundamental Physical Constants: Looking from Different Angles

We consider fundamental physical constants which are among a few of the most important pieces of information we have learned about Nature after its intensive centuries-long studies. We discuss their multifunctional role in modern physics including problems related to the art of measurement, natural and practical units, origin of the constants, their possible calculability and variability etc

Interference of Clocks: A Quantum Twin Paradox

The phase of matter waves depends on proper time and is therefore susceptible to special-relativistic (kinematic) and gravitational time dilation (redshift). Hence, it is conceivable that atom interferometers measure general-relativistic time-dilation effects. In contrast to this intuition, we show that light-pulse interferometers without internal transitions are not sensitive to gravitational time dilation, whereas they can constitute a quantum version of the special-relativistic twin paradox. We propose an interferometer geometry isolating the effect that can be used for quantum-clock interferometry.Comment: 9 Pages, 2 Figure

History of Spin and Statistics

These lectures were given in the framework of the ``Dixi\`eme s\'eminaire rhodanien de physique'' entitled ``Le spin en physique'', given at Villa Gualino, Turin, March 2002. We have shown how the difficulties of interpretation of atomic spectra led to the Pauli exclusion principle and to the notion of spin, and then described the following steps: the Pauli spin with 2$\times$2 matrices after the birth of "new" quantum mechanics, the Dirac equation and the magnetic moment of the electron, the spins and magnetic moments of other particles, proton, neutron and hyperons. Finally, we show the crucial role of statistics in the stability of the world.Comment: latex file, 7 figures, 3 table

Testing the Equivalence Principle by Lamb shift Energies

The Einstein Equivalence Principle has as one of its implications that the non-gravitational laws of physics are those of special relativity in any local freely-falling frame. We consider possible tests of this hypothesis for systems whose energies are due to radiative corrections, i.e. which arise purely as a consequence of quantum field theoretic loop effects. Specifically, we evaluate the Lamb shift transition (as given by the energy splitting between the $2S_{1/2}$ and $2P_{1/2}$ atomic states) within the context of violations of local position invariance and local Lorentz invariance, as described by the $T H \epsilon\mu$ formalism. We compute the associated red shift and time dilation parameters, and discuss how (high-precision) measurements of these quantities could provide new information on the validity of the equivalence principle.Comment: 40 pages, latex, epsf, 1 figure, final version which appears in Physical Review

Spin effects probed by Rayleigh X-ray scattering off hydrogenic ions

We study the polarization characteristics of x-ray photons scattered by hydrogenic atoms, based on the Dirac equation and second-order perturbation theory. The relativistic states used in calculations are obtained using the finite basis set method and expressed in terms of B-splines and B-polynomials. We derive general analytical expressions for the polarization-dependent total cross sections, which are applicable to any atom and ion, and evaluate them separately for linear and circular polarization of photons. In particular, detailed calculations are performed for the integrated Stokes parameters of the scattered light for hydrogen as well as hydrogenlike neon and argon. Analyzing such integrated Stokes parameters, special attention is given to the electron-photon spin-spin interaction, which mostly stems from the magnetic-dipole contribution of the electron-photon interaction. Subsequently, we find an energy window for the selected targets in which such spin-spin interactions can be probed.Comment: 8 pages,ures 4 fig, To be appeared in Radiat. Phys. Chem. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1208.308

The Structure of Light Nuclei and Its Effect on Precise Atomic Measurements

This review consists of three parts: (a) what every atomic physicist needs to know about the physics of light nuclei; (b) what nuclear physicists can do for atomic physics; (c) what atomic physicists can do for nuclear physics. A brief qualitative overview of the nuclear force and calculational techniques for light nuclei will be presented, with an emphasis on debunking myths and on recent progress in the field. Nuclear quantities that affect precise atomic measurements will be discussed, together with their current theoretical and experimental status. The final topic will be a discussion of those atomic measurements that would be useful to nuclear physics, and nuclear calculations that would improve our understanding of existing atomic data.Comment: 24 pages, latex, 6 figures, svmult.cls required -- index at back To appear in "Precision Physics of Simple Atomic Systems," ed. by S. Karshenboim, (Springer-Verlag, Berlin, in preparation

Local Relativistic Exact Decoupling

We present a systematic hierarchy of approximations for {\it local} exact-decoupling of four-component quantum chemical Hamiltonians based on the Dirac equation. Our ansatz reaches beyond the trivial local approximation that is based on a unitary transformation of only the atomic block-diagonal part of the Hamiltonian. Systematically, off-diagonal Hamiltonian matrix blocks can be subjected to a unitary transformation to yield relativistically corrected matrix elements. The full hierarchy is investigated with respect to the accuracy reached for the electronic energy and molecular properties on a balanced test molecule set that comprises molecules with heavy elements in different bonding situations. Our atomic (local) assembly of the unitary transformation needed for exact decoupling provides an excellent local approximation for any relativistic exact-decoupling approach. Its order-$N^2$ scaling can be further reduced to linear scaling by employing the neighboring-atomic-blocks approximation. Therefore, it is an efficient relativistic method perfectly well suited for relativistic calculations on large molecules. If a large molecule contains many light atoms (typically hydrogen atoms), the computational costs can be further reduced by employing a well-defined non-relativistic approximation for these light atoms without significant loss of accuracy