Empirically constructed dynamic electric dipole polarizability function of magnesium and its applications

TL;DR

This paper constructs an empirical dynamic electric dipole polarizability function for magnesium by combining theoretical and experimental data, and applies it to calculate atomic interactions and compare with previous results.

Contribution

It presents a new empirically constructed polarizability function for magnesium, integrating diverse data sources and analyzing its implications for atomic interactions.

Findings

The static polarizability of magnesium is evaluated.

Inner shell electron contributions to polarizability are identified.

Calculated long-range atomic interactions agree with some theoretical models.

Abstract

The dynamic electric dipole polarizability function for the magnesium atom is formed by assembling the atomic electric dipole oscillator strength distribution from combinations of theoretical and experimental data for resonance oscillator strengths and for photoionization cross sections of valence and inner shell electrons. Consistency with the oscillator strength (Thomas-Reiche-Kuhn) sum rule requires the adopted principal resonance line oscillator strength to be several percent lower than the values given in two critical tabulations, though the value adopted is consistent with a number of theoretical determinations. The static polarizability is evaluated. Comparing the resulting dynamic polarizability as a function of photon energy with more elaborate calculations reveals the contributions of inner shell electron excitations. The present results are applied to calculate the long-range interactions between two and three magnesium atoms and the interaction between a magnesium atom and a perfectly conducting metallic plate. Extensive comparisons of prior results for the principal resonance line oscillator strength, for the static polarizability, and for the van der Waals coefficient are given in an Appendix.