The two-loop self-energy for the ground state of medium-Z hydrogen-like ions

The two-loop self-energy correction to the ground state Lamb shift is calculated for hydrogen-like ions with the nuclear charge Z=10-30 without any expansion in the binding field of the nucleus. A calculational technique is reported for treatment of Feynman diagrams in the mixed coordinate-momentum representation, which yields significant improvement in numerical accuracy as compared to previous results. An extrapolation of the all-order numerical data towards Z=1 yields a result for the higher-order remainder function for hydrogen. The previously reported disagreement between the all-order and the perturbative approaches is reduced to the marginal agreement.Comment: 4 pages, 1 table, 3 figure

Relativistic configuration-interaction calculation of energy levels of core-excited states in lithium-like ions: argon through krypton

Large-scale relativistic configuration-interaction calculation of energy levels of core-excited states of lithium-like ions is presented. Quantum electrodynamic, nuclear recoil, and frequency-dependent Breit corrections are included in the calculation. The approach is consistently applied for calculating all $n=2$ core-excited states for all lithium-like ions starting from argon ($Z = 18$) and ending with krypton ($Z = 36$). The results obtained are supplemented with systematical estimations of calculation errors and omitted effects

Two-Loop Bethe Logarithms for non-S Levels

Two-loop Bethe logarithms are calculated for excited P and D states in hydrogenlike systems, and estimates are presented for all states with higher angular momenta. These results complete our knowledge of the P and D energy levels in hydrogen at the order of alpha^8 m_e c^2, where m_e is the electron mass and c is the speed of light, and scale as Z^6, where Z is the nuclear charge number. Our analytic and numerical calculations are consistent with the complete absence of logarithmic terms of order (alpha/pi)^2 (Z alpha)^6 ln[(Z alpha)^(-2)] m_e c^2 for D states and all states with higher angular momenta. For higher excited P and D states, a number of poles from lower-lying levels have to subtracted in the numerical evaluation. We find that, surprisingly, the corrections of the "squared decay-rate type" are the numerically dominant contributions in the order (alpha/pi)^2 (Z alpha)^6 m_e c^2 for states with large angular momenta, and provide an estimate of the entire B_60-coefficient for Rydberg states with high angular momentum quantum numbers. Our results reach the predictive limits of the quantum electrodynamic theory of the Lamb shift.Comment: 14 pages, RevTe

Two-loop QED corrections with closed fermion loops for the bound-electron g factor

Two-loop QED corrections with closed fermion loops are calculated for the 1s bound-electron g factor. Calculations are performed to all orders in the nuclear binding strength parameter Z\alpha (where Z is the nuclear charge and \alpha is the fine structure constant) except for the closed fermion loop, which is treated within the free-loop (Uehling) approximation in some cases. Comparison with previous Z\alpha-expansion calculations is made and the higher-order remainder of order \alpha^2(Z\alpha)^5 and higher is separated out from the numerical results

QED corrections of order alpha (Zalpha)^2 E_F to the hyperfine splitting of P_1/2 and P_3/2 states in hydrogenlike ions

The hyperfine structure (HFS) of a bound electron is modified by the self-interaction of the electron with its own radiation field. This effect is known as the self-energy correction. In this work, we discuss the evaluation of higher-order self-energy corrections to the HFS of bound P states. These are expressed in a semi-analytic expansion involving powers of Zalpha and ln(Zalpha), where Z is the nuclear charge number and alpha is the fine-structure constant. We find that the correction of relative order alpha (Zalpha)^2 involves only a single logarithm ln(Zalpha) for P_1/2 states [but no term of order alpha (Zalpha)^2 ln^2(Zalpha), whereas for P_3/2 states, even the single logarithm vanishes. By a Foldy-Wouthuysen transformation, we identify a nuclear-spin dependent correction to the electron's transition current, which contributes to the HFS of P states. A comparison of the obtained analytic results to a numerical approach is made.Comment: 12 oages; RevTe

Hyperfine structure of S states in Li and Be^+

A large-scale configuration-interaction (CI) calculation is reported for the hyperfine splitting of the 2^2S and 3^2S states of ^7Li and ^9Be^+. The CI calculation based on the Dirac-Coulomb-Breit Hamiltonian is supplemented with a separate treatment of the QED, nuclear-size, nuclear-magnetization distribution, and recoil corrections. The nonrelativistic limit of the CI results is in excellent agreement with variational calculations. The theoretical values obtained for the hyperfine splitting are complete to the relative order of \alpha^2 and improve upon results of previous studies.Comment: 4 pages, 2 table