Conforming the measured lifetimes of the $5d \ ^2D_{3/2,5/2}$ states in Cs with theory

TL;DR

This paper accurately calculates the lifetimes of specific cesium states by combining advanced relativistic many-body theory with experimental data, resolving previous discrepancies between theory and experiment.

Contribution

It provides a detailed relativistic many-body calculation of cesium state lifetimes, clarifying earlier inconsistencies with experimental measurements.

Findings

Calculated lifetimes agree with recent experimental values.

Analyzed electron correlation effects on transition matrix elements.

Identified sources of errors in previous theoretical studies.

Abstract

We find very good agreement between our theoretically evaluated lifetimes of the $5d \ ^2D_{3/2}$ and $5d \ ^2D_{5/2}$ states of Cs with the experimental values reported in [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 57}, 4204 (1998)], which were earlier evinced to be disagreeing with an earlier rigorous theoretical study [Phys. Rev. A {\bf 69}, 040501(R) (2004)] and with another precise measurement [Opt. Lett. {\bf 21}, 74 (1996)]. In this work, we have carried out calculations of the radiative transition matrix elements using many variants of relativistic many-body methods, mainly in the coupled-cluster theory framework, and analyze propagation of the electron correlation effects to elucidate their roles for accurate evaluations of the matrix elements. We also demonstrate contributions explicitly from the Dirac-Coulomb interactions, frequency independent Breit interaction and lower order quantum electrodynamics (QED) effects. Uncertainties to these matrix elements due to different possible sources of errors are estimated. By combining our calculated radiative matrix elements with the experimental values of the transition wavelengths, we obtain the transition probabilities due to both the allowed and lower order forbidden channels. Adding these quantities together, the lifetimes of the above two states are determined precisely and plausible reasons for the reported inconsistencies between the earlier theoretical calculations and the experimental results have been pointed out.