Theoretical determination of lifetimes of metastable states in Sc III and Y III

TL;DR

This paper uses relativistic coupled-cluster theory to theoretically determine the lifetimes of metastable states in doubly ionized scandium and yttrium, highlighting their importance in astrophysics.

Contribution

It provides the first theoretical lifetime calculations for these metastable states using advanced correlation methods, comparing trends across related ions.

Findings

Lifetimes of metastable states are calculated with high accuracy.

Correlation effects significantly influence the state lifetimes.

Results are relevant for astrophysical observations of cool giant stars.

Abstract

Lifetimes of the first two metastable states in Sc^{2+} and Y^{2+} are determined using the relativistic coupled-cluster theory. There is a considerable interest in studying the electron correlation effects in these ions as though their electronic configurations are similar to the neutral alkali atoms, their structures are very different from the latter. We have made a comparative study of the correlation trends between the above doubly ionized systems with their corresponding neutral and singly ionized iso-electronic systems. The lifetimes of the excited states of these ions are very important in the field of astrophysics, especially for the study of post-main sequence evolution of the cool giant stars.