Electric-dipole transition amplitudes for atoms and ions with one valence electron
B. M. Roberts, C. J. Fairhall, J. S. M. Ginges
Abstract
Motivated by recent measurements for several alkali-metal atoms and alkali-metal-like ions, we perform a detailed study of electric dipole ($E1$) transition amplitudes in K, $\mathrm{Ca}{}^{+}$, Rb, $\mathrm{Sr}{}^{+}$, Cs, $\mathrm{Ba}{}^{+}$, Fr, and $\mathrm{Ra}{}^{+}$, which are of interest for studies of atomic parity violation, electric dipole moments, and polarizabilities. Using the all-orders correlation potential method, we perform high-precision calculations of $E1$ transition amplitudes between low-lying $s, p$, and $d$ states. We perform a robust error analysis, and compare our calculations to many amplitudes for which there are high-precision experimental determinations. We find excellent agreement, with deviations at the level of $\ensuremath{\sim}0.1$%. We also compare our results to other theoretical evaluations, and discuss the implications for uncertainty analyses. Further, combining calculations of branching ratios with recent measurements, we extract high-precision values for several $E1$ amplitudes of $\mathrm{Ca}{}^{+}, \mathrm{Sr}{}^{+}$, Cs, Fr, and $\mathrm{Ra}{}^{+}$.