English

Weak Correlation and Strong Relativistic Effects on the Hyperfine Interaction in Fluorine

Atomic Physics 2021-08-04 v1

Abstract

In previous work devoted to {\it ab initio} calculations of hyperfine structure constants in nitrogen and fluorine atoms, we observed sizeable relativistic effects, a priori unexpected for such light systems, that can even largely dominate over electron correlation. We observed that the atomic wave functions calculated in the Breit-Pauli approximation describe adequately the relevant atomic levels and hyperfine structures, even in cases for which a small relativistic LSLS-term mixing becomes crucial. In the present work we identify new levels belonging to the spectroscopic terms 2p4(3 ⁣P)3d   2,4 ⁣(P,D,F)2p^4(^3\!P) 3d ~ \; ^{2,4}\!(P,D,F) of the fluorine atom, for which correlation effects on the hyperfine structures are small, but relativistic LSLS-term admixtures are decisive to correctly reproduce the experimental values. The Breit-Pauli analysis of the hyperfine matrix elements nails cases with large cancellation, either between LSLS pairs for individual hyperfine operators, or between the orbital and the spin-dipole contributions. Multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculations are performed to support the Breit-Pauli analysis.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2108.01116,
  title  = {Weak Correlation and Strong Relativistic Effects on the Hyperfine Interaction in Fluorine},
  author = {Fatima Zahra Boualili and Messaoud Nemouchi and Michel Godefroid and Per Jönsson},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2108.01116},
  year   = {2021}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-24T04:46:07.363Z