Isotope shift in the electron affinity of lithium

Exact Theory Applied to the Lithium Atom

The free complement (FC) theory for solving the scaled Schrödinger equation (SSE) was applied to the Li atom for calculating the exact wave functions, the energies, and the various properties of the ground doublet S and excited P states. The SSE is equivalent to the Schrödinger equation (SE) but does not have the divergence difficulty of the variational equation of the SE. Because the Li atom is a three-electron system, the variational exact FC calculations for solving the SSE are possible using the function g = 1 - exp(-γr) as the "correct" scaling function of the SSE. The "reasonable" scaling function g = r was also used as comparative calculations. We performed variational calculations to the order eight of the FC theory and could obtain essentially exact solutions of the SSE or SE with the "correct" g function of the FC theory. We report here the values of the exact energy, spin density, electron density, and electron-nuclear and electron-electron cusp values of the doublet S and P states. They agreed very well with the experimental values and the best theoretical values presented by Drake and collaborators. This is a simple example that the exact theory gives the exact solutions.

Using Koopmans' theorem for constructing basis sets: approaching high Rydberg excited states of lithium with a compact Gaussian basis

For accurate ab initio description of Rydberg excited states, this study suggests generating appropriate diffuse basis functions by cheap variational optimization of virtual orbitals of the corresponding ion core. By following this approach, dozens of converged correlated lithium Rydberg states, namely, all the states up to 24 ²S, 25 ²P, 14 ²D, 16 ²F and 16 ²G, not yet achieved via other ab initio approaches, could be obtained at the EOM-CCSD level of theory with compact and mostly state-selective contracted Gaussian basis sets. Despite its small size and Gaussian character, the optimized basis leads to highly accurate excitation energies that differ merely in the order of meV from the reference state-of-the-art explicitly correlated Gaussian method and even surpass Full-CI results on the Slater basis by an order of magnitude.

Hylleraas-Configuration Interaction (Hy-CI) Non-Relativistic Energies for the 3 ​ 1 S , 4 ​ 1 S , 5 ​ 1 S , 6 ​ 1 S , and 7 ​ 1 S Excited States of the Beryllium Atom

In a previous work Sims and Hagstrom [J Chem Phys 140,224312(2014)] reported Hylleraas-configuration interaction (Hy-CI) method variational calculations for the 1 S ground states of the beryllium isoelectronic sequence with an estimated accuracy of 10 to 20 nanohartrees (nHa). In this work the calculations have been extended to the five higher states of the neutral beryllium atom, 3 1 S, 4 1 S, 5 1 S, 6 1 S, and 7 1 S. The best non-relativistic energies obtained for these states are -14.4182 4034 6, -14.3700 8789 0, -14.3515 1167 6,-14.3424 0357 8, and -14.3372 6649 96 Ha, respectively. The 6 1 S result is superior to the known reference energy for that state, while for the 7 1 S state there is no other comparable calculation.

Hylleraas-Configuration Interaction study of the 1S ground state of the negative Li ion

In a previous work Sims and Hagstrom [J. Chem. Phys. 140, 224312 (2014)] reported Hylleraas-Configuration Interaction (Hy-CI) method variational calculations for the neutral atom and positive ion ¹S ground states of the beryllium isoelectronic sequence. The Li^- ion, nominally the first member of this series, has a decidedly different electronic structure. This paper reports the results of a large, comparable calculation for the Li^- ground state to explore how well the Hy-CI method can represent the more diffuse L shell of Li^- which is representative of the Be(2sns) excited states as well. The best non-relativistic energy obtained was -7.500 776 596 hartree, indicating that 10 - 20 nh accuracy is attainable in Hy-CI and that convergence of the r₁₂r₃₄ double cusp is fast and that this correlation type can be accurately represented within the Hy-CI model.

Prediction of (1)P Rydberg energy levels of beryllium based on calculations with explicitly correlated Gaussians

Benchmark variational calculations are performed for the seven lowest 1s(2)2s np ((1)P), n = 2...8, states of the beryllium atom. The calculations explicitly include the effect of finite mass of (9)Be nucleus and account perturbatively for the mass-velocity, Darwin, and spin-spin relativistic corrections. The wave functions of the states are expanded in terms of all-electron explicitly correlated Gaussian functions. Basis sets of up to 12,500 optimized Gaussians are used. The maximum discrepancy between the calculated nonrelativistic and experimental energies of 1s(2)2s np ((1)P) →1s(2)2s(2) ((1)S) transition is about 12 cm(-1). The inclusion of the relativistic corrections reduces the discrepancy to bellow 0.8 cm(-1).

High accuracy ab initio studies of electron-densities for the ground state of Be-like atomic systems

Benchmark results for electron densities in the ground states of Li(-), Be, C(2+), Ne(6+), and Ar(14+) have been generated from very accurate variational wave functions represented in terms of extensive basis sets of exponentially correlated Gaussian functions. For Ne(6+), and Ar(14+), the upper bounds to the energies improve over previous results known from the literature. For the remaining systems our bounds are from 0.1 to 1.1 μhartree higher than the most accurate ones. We present in graphical and, partially, numerical form results both for the radial electron densities and for the difference radial density distributions (DRD) (defined with respect to the Hartree-Fock radial density) that highlight the impact of correlation effects on electron densities. Next, we have employed these DRD distributions in studies of the performance of several broadly used orbital-based quantum-chemical methods in accounting for correlation effects on the density. Our computed benchmark densities for Be have been also applied for testing the possibility of using the mathematically strict result concerning exact atomic electron densities, obtained by Ahlrichs et al. [Phys. Rev. A 23, 2106 (1981)], for the determination of the reliability range of computed densities in the long-range asymptotic region. The results obtained for Be are encouraging.

An algorithm for quantum mechanical finite-nuclear-mass variational calculations of atoms with L = 3 using all-electron explicitly correlated Gaussian basis functions

A new algorithm for quantum-mechanical nonrelativistic calculation of the Hamiltonian matrix elements with all-electron explicitly correlated Gaussian functions for atoms with an arbitrary number of s electrons and with three p electrons, or one p electron and one d electron, or one f electron is developed and implemented. In particular the implementation concerns atomic states with L = 3 and M = 0. The Hamiltonian used in the approach is obtained by rigorously separating the center-of-mass motion from the laboratory-frame all particle Hamiltonian, and thus it explicitly depends on the finite mass of the nucleus. The approach is employed to perform test calculations on the lowest (2)F state of the two main isotopes of the lithium atom, (7)Li and (6)Li.

Explicitly correlated Gaussian calculations of the 2P(o) Rydberg spectrum of the lithium atom

Accurate quantum-mechanical nonrelativistic variational calculations are performed for the nine lowest members of the (2)P(o) Rydberg series (1s(2)np(1), n = 2, ..., 10) of the lithium atom. The effect of the finite nuclear mass is included in the calculations allowing for determining the isotopic shifts of the energy levels. The wave functions of the states are expanded in terms of all-electron explicitly correlated Gaussian functions. The exponential parameters of the Gaussians are variationally optimized with the aid of the analytical energy gradient determined with respect to those parameters. The calculated state energies are compared with the available experimental data.