Theoretical characterisation of the barium II and radium II ions

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive theoretical analysis of Ra+ and Ba+ ions, calculating transition properties and hyperfine constants to support precision physics experiments and atomic clock development.

Contribution

It introduces high-accuracy calculations of transition matrix elements, lifetimes, and hyperfine constants for Ra+ and Ba+ ions, including QED corrections, aiding experimental physics.

Findings

Accurate transition matrix elements for E1, E2, M1 transitions.

Determined excited-state lifetimes and polarizabilities.

Extracted nuclear magnetisation distribution parameters.

Abstract

Motivated by recent experimental advances, including the ongoing development of an optical atomic clock in singly ionised radium, we perform a detailed theoretical characterisation of Ra+ and its lighter analogue, Ba+. Both ions are of interest for precision studies, including for atomic parity violation and searches for new physics beyond the standard model. Using the all-orders correlation potential method, including Breit and radiative quantum electrodynamics corrections, we perform high-accuracy calculations of electric-dipole (E1), electric-quadrupole (E2), and magnetic-dipole (M1) transition matrix elements between the low-lying s, p, and d states of these ions, as well as the excited-state lifetimes, polarizabilities, magic wavelengths, and magnetic dipole (A) hyperfine structure constants. By combining lifetime measurements with precise theoretical ratios, we extract high-accuracy determinations of the s-d_1/2 and s-d_3/2 E2 matrix elements. By combining hyperfine measurements with atomic theory, we extract parameters of the nuclear magnetisation distribution (the Bohr-Weisskopf effect) for 135-, 137-Ba and 223-, 225-Ra. These results provide theoretical input for ongoing and future experimental programs in fundamental physics and precision metrology.