Vacuum polarization corrections to hyperfine structure in many-electron atoms
Abstract
We perform a theoretical study of vacuum polarization corrections to the hyperfine structure in many-electron atoms. Calculations are performed for systems of interest for precision atomic tests of fundamental physics belonging to the alkali-metal atoms and singly-ionized alkaline earths. The vacuum polarization is considered in the Uehling approximation, and we study the many-body effects core relaxation, core polarization, and valence-core correlations in the relativistic framework. We find that for s states, the relative vacuum polarization correction may be well-approximated by that for hydrogenlike ions, though for all other states account of many-body effects -- in particular, the polarization of the core -- is needed to obtain the correct sign and magnitude of the correction.
Cite
@article{arxiv.2409.17979,
title = {Vacuum polarization corrections to hyperfine structure in many-electron atoms},
author = {J. C. Hasted and C. J. Fairhall and O. R. Smits and B. M. Roberts and J. S. M. Ginges},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.17979},
year = {2025}
}