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The properties of atomic negative ions are to a large extent determined by electron-electron correlation which makes them an ideal testing ground for atomic many-body physics. In this paper, we present a detailed experimental and theoretical study of excited states in the negative ion of iridium. The ions were stored at cryogenic temperatures using the double electrostatic ion ring experiment facility at Stockholm University. Laser photodetachment was used to monitor the relaxation of three bound excited states belonging to the [Xe] 4f145d86s2 ionic ground configuration. Our measurements show that the first excited state has a lifetime much longer than the ion-beam storage time of 1230±100s. The binding energy of this state was measured to be 1.045±0.002eV. The lifetimes of the second and third excited states were experimentally determined to be 133±10 and 172±35ms, respectively. Multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock calculations were performed in order to extract binding energies and lifetimes. These calculations predict the existence of the third excited bound state that was detected experimentally. The computed lifetimes for the three excited bound states agree well with the experimental results and allow for a clear identification of the detected levels., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published

Communications Physics 3(1), 107 (2020). doi:10.1038/s42005-020-0348-9, Published by Springer Nature, London

We are reinvestigating the hyperfine structure of sodium using a fully relativistic multiconfiguration approach. In the fully relativistic approach, the computational strategy somewhat differs from the original nonrelativistic counterpart used in J\"onsson et al. (Phys. Rev. A 53 (1996) 4021). Numerical instabilities force us to use a layer-by-layer approach that has some broad unexpected effects. Core correlation is found to be significant and therefore requires to be described in an adequate orbital basis. The natural-orbital basis provides an interesting alternative to the orbital basis from the layer-by-layer approach, allowing us to overcome some deficits of the latter, giving rise to magnetic dipole hyperfine structure constant values in excellent agreement with observations. Effort is made to assess the reliability of the natural-orbital bases and to illustrate their efficiency., Comment: 12 tables, 2 figures

Astronomical spectroscopy has recently expanded into the near-infrared (nIR) wavelength region, raising the demands on atomic transition data. The interpretation of the observed spectra largely relies on theoretical results, and progress towards the production of accurate theoretical data must continuously be made. Spectrum calculations that target multiple atomic states at the same time are by nomeans trivial. Further, numerous atomic systems involve Rydberg series,which are associated with additional difficulties. In this work, we demonstrate how the challenges in the computations of Rydberg series can be handled in large-scale multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock (MCDHF) and relativistic configuration interaction (RCI) calculations. By paying special attention to the construction of the radial orbital basis that builds the atomic state functions, transition data that are weakly sensitive to the choice of gauge can be obtained. Additionally, we show that the Babushkin gauge should not always be considered as the preferred gauge, and that, in the computations of transition data involving Rydberg series, the Coulomb gauge could be more appropriate for the analysis of astrophysical spectra. To illustrate the above, results from computations of transitions involving Rydberg series in the astrophysically important C IV and C III ions are presented and analyzed., SCOPUS: ar.j, info:eu-repo/semantics/published