Calculation of Hydrogenic Bethe Logarithms for Rydberg States

We consider a general procedure to evaluate the Bethe logarithm for a general few-body atomic or molecular system. As benchmarks we use calculation for the ground states of a helium atom and H_2^+ molecular ion. The obtained values are: \beta_He=4.37016022306(2) for the helium atom and \beta_{H_2^+} = 3.012230335(1) for the H_2^+. Both results substantially improve the best known values for these quantities.

Processes mediated by two virtual low-energy photons contribute quite significantly to the energy of hydrogenic S states. The corresponding level shift is of the order of (alpha/pi)^2 (Zalpha)^6 m_e c^2 and may be ascribed to a two-loop generalization of the Bethe logarithm. For 1S and 2S states, the correction has recently been evaluated by Pachucki and Jentschura [Phys. Rev. Lett. vol. 91, 113005 (2003)]. Here, we generalize the approach to higher excited S states, which in...

The Rydberg formula along with the Ritz quantum defect ansatz has been a standard theoretical tool used in atomic physics since before the advent of quantum mechanics, yet this approach has remained limited by its non-relativistic foundation. Here I present a long-distance relativistic effective theory describing hydrogen-like systems with arbitrary mass ratios, thereby extending the canonical Ritz-like approach. Fitting the relativistic theory to the hydrogen energy levels p...

We develop a numerical method to calculate the Bethe logarithm for resonant states. We use the Complex Coordinate Rotation (CCR) formalism to describe resonances as time-independent Schr\"odinger solutions. To get a proper expression for the Bethe logarithm we apply the generalization of the second order perturbation theory to an isolated CCR eigenstate. Using the developed method we perform a systematic calculation of the Bethe logarithm for metastable states in the antiprot...

The efficient and simple B-splines variational method of calculating the hydrogen atom Bethe logarithms in the acceleration gauge [Y-B Tang et.al., Phys. Rev. A $\mathbf{87}$, 022510 (2013)] is successfully applied to other gauges. The ground state Bethe logarithm of H with fourteen accurate figures is obtained in the velocity gauge, and in the length gauge the ground state value has eleven accurate figures. Present velocity- and length-gauge results for the $ns$, $np$, $nd$,...

In this work, we report an application of Hylleraas-$B$-spline basis set to the nonrelativistic Bethe logarithm calculation of helium. The Bethe logarithm for $n\ ^1S$, $n$ up to 10, states of helium are calculated with a precision of 7-9 significant digits in two gauges, which greatly improves the accuracy of the traditional $B$-spline basis set. In addition, to deal with the numerical linear correlation problem in Bethe logarithm calculation, we developed a multiple-precisi...

This article presents a review of the most recent theoretical and experimental results in hydrogen. We particularly emphasize the methods used to deduce the Rydberg constant $R_\infty$ and we consider the prospects for future improvements in the precision of $R_\infty$.

We calculate the one- and two-loop corrections of order alpha(Zalpha)^6 and alpha^2(Zalpha)^6 respectively, to the Lamb shift in hydrogen-like systems using the formalism of nonrelativistic quantum electrodynamics. We obtain general results valid for all hydrogenic states with nonvanishing orbital angular momentum and for the normalized difference of S-states. These results involve the expectation value of local effective operators and relativistic corrections to Bethe logari...

Higher order $(\alpha/\pi)^2 (Z \alpha)^6$ logarithmic corrections to the hydrogen Lamb shift are calculated. The results obtained show the two-loop contribution has a very peculiar behavior, and significantly alter the theoretical predictions for low lying S-states.

We consider the $1s$ Lamb shift in hydrogen and helium ions, a quantity, required for an accurate determination of the Rydberg constant and the proton charge radius by means of hydrogen spectroscopy, as well as for precision tests of the bound-state QED. The dominant QED contribution to the uncertainty originates from $\alpha^8m$ external-field contributions (i.e., the contributions at the non-recoil limit). We discuss the two- and three-loop cases and in particular, we revis...