QED treatment of electron correlation in Li-like ions

A systematic QED treatment of electron correlation is presented for ions along the lithium isoelectronic sequence. We start with the zeroth-order approximation that accounts for a part of the electron-electron interaction by a local model potential introduced into the Dirac equation. The residual electron correlation is treated by perturbation theory. Rigorous QED evaluation is presented for the first two terms of the perturbative expansion; the third-order contribution is calculated within the many-body perturbation theory. We report accurate numerical results for the electronic-structure part of the ionization potential for the n=2 states of all Li-like ions up to uranium.