The Ground State Energy of Heavy Atoms: the Leading Correction

TL;DR

This paper calculates the leading correction to the ground state energy of heavy atoms using no-pair operators and compares it with empirical data and Schwinger's prediction, showing qualitative agreement.

Contribution

It provides a new theoretical calculation of the leading energy correction for heavy atoms within the no-pair operator framework.

Findings

The correction aligns qualitatively with empirical values.

Schwinger's prediction is in good agreement with the calculated correction.

The method advances understanding of relativistic effects in heavy atoms.

Abstract

For heavy atoms (large atomic number $Z$) described by no-pair operators in the Furry picture we find the ground state's leading energy correction. We compare the result with (semi-)empirical values and Schwinger's prediction showing more than qualitative agreement.