Third-order diamagnetic susceptibilities of hydrogenlike atoms

Abstract

We develop a method for calculating diamagnetic susceptibilities based on higher-order perturbation theory for the wave function and energy of the excited states of the hydrogen atom with degeneracy of arbitrary multiplicity. We derive analytical expressions for third-order matrix elements in the spherical states |nlm〉 with fixed principal quantum number n and magnetic quantum number m. The formulas for the susceptibilities of doubly degenerate levels are represented in the form of radical-fractional relationships containing polynomials in the principal quantum number. We establish the existence of a monotonic interdependence between the absolute values of susceptibilities of the first three orders. We also present the results of numerical calculations for the states with n⩽6 and m⩽3 mixed by the field. Finally, for Rydberg states with large n and small m we detect the existence of a discontinuity in the interdependence of the susceptibilities at the boundary between the doublet and equidistant parts of the spectrum of diamagnetic sublevels with opposite parities.