Ab-initio interpretation of 〈r⁻³〉 electronic quantities in the hfs of Mg I 3s 3p ³ P and¹ P

Abstract

It has been known for a long time that, in a two-electron arc spectrum, the properties of the³ P and¹ P terms of the lowests p configuration cannot be interpreted correctly in a pure-configuration model. Following the experimental determination of the hyperfine constantA(3s 3p ¹ P ₁) in Mg I by Kluge and Otten, this paper presents the ab-initio interpretation of the 〈r ⁻³〉_3p hyperfine electronic quantities in 3s 3p through the use of the multiconfigurational Hartree-Fock method. It appears that taking into account the effects of the monoelectronic excitations 3s→nd, 2p→np and 3p→np leads to ab-initio evaluations in very good agreement with experiment. The case of the 3p→np excitation, to which Brillouin's theorem should apply in principle, is discussed. Using the same method, a refined evaluation is proposed for the nuclear electric-quadrupole moment of Mg²⁵ (Q=0.200 ± 0.01 barn).