Theoretical Hyperfine Structures of $^{19}$F~I and $^{17}$O~I

TL;DR

This paper presents detailed multiconfiguration calculations of hyperfine structures for specific states of $^{19}$F~I and $^{17}$O~I, highlighting the roles of electron correlation and relativistic effects.

Contribution

It introduces advanced multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock and Dirac-Hartree-Fock methods to accurately compute hyperfine constants, emphasizing the importance of correlation and relativistic effects in light atomic systems.

Findings

Relativistic effects are significant for certain hyperfine constants.

Electron correlation dominates over relativistic effects for most levels.

Results agree well with experimental data.

Abstract

Multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock (MCHF) and multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock (MCDHF) calculations are performed for the $2p^{5}~^{2}P^{o}$, $2p^4(^{3}P)3s~^{4}P$, $2p^4(^{3}P)3s~^{2}P$ and $2p^4(^{3}P)3p~^{4}S^o$ states of $^{19}$F~I to determine their hyperfine constants. Several computing strategies are considered to investigate electron correlation and relativistic effects. High-order correlation contributions are included in MCHF calculations based on single and double multireference (SD-MR) expansions. The largest components of the single reference MCHF wave functions are selected to define the MR sets. In this scheme, relativistic corrections are evaluated in the Breit-Pauli approximation. A similar strategy is used for the calculation of MCDHF relativistic wave functions and hyperfine parameters. While correlation and relativistic corrections are found to be rather small for the ground state, we highlight large relativistic effects on the hyperfine constant $A_{3/2}$ of $2p^4(^{3}P)3p~^{4}S^o$ and, to a lesser extent, on $A_{1/2}$ of $2p^4(^{3}P)3s~^{4}P$. As expected for such a light system, electron correlation effects dominate over relativity in the calculation of the hyperfine interaction of all other levels considered. We also revisit the hyperfine constants of $2p^3(^{4}S)3s~^{5}S^{o}$ and $2p^3(^{4}S)3p~^{5}P$ in $^{17}$O using similar strategies. The results are found to be in excellent agreement with experiment.