High precision calculation of helium fine structure and determination of the fine structure constant
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Date
2005
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University of New Brunswick
Abstract
The Few-body atomic or molecular systems are structurally simple to understand, but the physics behind such systems are extremely difficult. In these systems it is not possible to find an exact solution to the Schodinger equation, even for the nonrelativistic problem. Using new variational methods it is possible to find very precise solutions in the nonrelativistic case, and include the relativistic and quantum electrodynamic (QED) corrections perturbatively. This work is to show the corrections needed in order to make a precise theoretical assessment of the ls2p3 PJ states of helium and compare the energy splittings with experiment. Also, comparison of values of the fine structure constant with the values determined through these methods is made.