Relativistic corrections to transition frequencies of Ag I, Dy I, Ho I, Yb II, Yb III, Au I and Hg II and search for variation of the fine structure constant

TL;DR

This paper calculates how transition frequencies in various many-electron atoms depend on the fine structure constant, highlighting potential enhancements in systems with open shells for detecting its possible variation over time.

Contribution

It provides new relativistic correction calculations for transition frequencies in several atoms, aiding the search for variations in the fine structure constant.

Findings

Results agree with previous calculations for known transitions.

Large open-shell systems show enhanced sensitivity to alpha variation.

Supports laboratory searches for fundamental constant variation.

Abstract

Dependence of transition frequencies on the fine structure constant $\alpha=e^2/\hbar c$ is calculated for several many-electron systems which are used or planned to be used in the laboratory search for the time variation of the fine structure constant. In systems with a large number of electrons in open shells (from 11 to 15) the relative effects of the variation may be strongly enhanced. For the transitions which were considered before the results are in good agreement with previous calculations.