Calculation of the Electron Self Energy for Low Nuclear Charge

Published

January 1, 1999

Author(s)

U Jentschura, Peter J. Mohr, G Soff

Abstract

We present a nonperturbative numerical evaluation of the one-photon electron self-energy for hydrogen like ions with low nuclear charge numbers Z = 1 to 5. Our calculation for 1S state has a numerical uncertainty of 0.8 Hz for hydrogen and 13 Hz for singly-ionized helium. Resummation and convergence acceleration techniques that reduce the computer time by about three orders of magnitude were employed in the calculation. The numerical results are compared to results based on known terms in the expansion of the self energy in powers of Zα.

Citation

Physical Review Letters

Volume

82

Issue

No. 1

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

calculations and mathematical techniques, computational techniques, detrmination of fundamental constants, electrodynamic effects in atoms, electrodynamic effects in molecules, numerical approximation and analyasis, quantum electrodynamic effects, quantum electrodynamics, relativistic electrodynamic effects

Citation

Jentschura, U. , Mohr, P. and Soff, G. (1999), Calculation of the Electron Self Energy for Low Nuclear Charge, Physical Review Letters (Accessed October 16, 2025)