Third-order many-body perturbation theory calculations for the beryllium and magnesium isoelectronic sequences

Relativistic third-order MBPT is applied to obtain energies of ions with two valence electrons in the no virtual-pair approximation (NVPA). A total of 302 third-order Goldstone diagrams are organized into 12 one-body and 23 two-body terms. Only third-order two-body terms and diagrams are presented here, owing to the fact that the one-body terms are identical to the previously studied third-order terms in monovalent ions. Dominant classes of diagrams are identified. The model potential is a Dirac-Hartree-Fock $V^{N-2}$ potential, and B-spline basis functions in a cavity of finite radius are employed in the numerical calculations. The Breit interaction is taken into account through second order of perturbation theory and the lowest-order Lamb shift is also evaluated. Sample calculations are performed for berylliumlike ions with Z = 4--7, and for the magnesiumlike ion P IV. The third-order energies are in excellent agreement with measurement with an accuracy at 0.2% level for the cases considered. Comparisons are made with previous second-order MBPT results and with other calculations. The third-order energy correction is shown to be significant, improving second-order correlation energies by an order of magnitude.