26th Australian Institute of Physics Congress and the Australian and New Zealand Conference on Optics and Photonics

Wichmann-Kroll vacuum polarization correction to lithium-like systems in a Gaussian basis set

Not scheduled

20m

Belinda Hutchinson Building (The University of Sydney )

Poster AIP | Atomic and Molecular Physics (ATMOP)

Description

The most fundamental description of the interaction between matter and light lies within the theoretical framework of quantum electrodynamics (QED). For atomic and molecular systems, QED calculations require complicated non-perturbative approaches that incorporate all orders of the coupling constant $Z\alpha$, where $Z$ is the nuclear charge and $\alpha$ is the fine-structure constant. Consequently, ab initio approaches to QED processes in bound-state systems is often replaced for approximation methods such as pseudopotentials [1,2].

Recently, finite basis set methods popular in applications of quantum chemistry have been applied to the atomic QED problem. Ivanov et al. [3] and Bennazouk et al. [4] investigated the $(Z\alpha)^{n\geq3}$ vacuum polarization correction to one-electron systems and analyzed its convergence behavior. We extend this problem to the multi-electron case; using Hartree-Fock mean field potentials we calculate the Wichmann-Kroll correction to lithium-like systems. Good agreement is found with similar methods using the numerical Green's function [5].

[1] T. Hangele and M. Dolg, Chemical Physics Letters (2014), 616-617, 222-225.
[2] V. V. Flambaum and J. S. M. Ginges, Physical Review A (2005), 72, 052115.
[3] V. K. Ivanov, S. S. Baturin, D. A. Glazov, and A. V. Volotka, Physical Review A (2024), 110, 032815.
[4] R. Benazzouk, M. Salman, T. Saue, Physical Review A (2026), 113, 032813.
[5] J. Sapirstein and K. T. Cheng, Physical Review A (2003), 68, 042111.