We calculate the energies of ground and three low lying excited states of confined helium atom centered in an impenetrable spherical box. We perform the calculation by employing variational method with two-parameter variational forms for the correlated two-particle wave function. With just two variational parameters we get quite accurate results for both ground and excited state energies.
Highly precise variational calculations of non-relativistic energies of the (2p^2)^3P^e state of Helium atom are presented.We get an upper bound energy E=-0.71050015565678 a.u.,the lowest yet obtained.
We present experimental results that demonstrate - for the first time - the Zeeman deceleration of helium atoms in the metastable 2^3S_1state. A more than 40% decrease of the kinetic energy of the beam is achieved for deceleration from 490 m/s to a final velocity of 370 m/s. Metastable atom generation is achieved with an electron-impact-excitation source whose performance is enhanced through an additional discharge-type process which we characterize in detail. Comparison of deceleration data at different electron beam pulse durations confirms that a matching between the initial particle distri…
We account for the different symmetries of the 2^{1,3}S helium excited states in a quasiclassical description of the knockout mechanism augmented by a quantum shakeoff contribution. We are thus able to formulate the separate contribution of the knockout and shakeoff mechanisms for double photoionization for any excess energy from the 2^{1,3}S states. Photoionization ratios and singly differential cross sections calculated for the 2^{1,3}S excited states of helium are found to be in very good agreement with recent theoretical results.
We have calculated the total energy of the helium atom in higher excited state. The Coulomb and exchange integrals are evaluated via spherical harmonics. The interaction of the magnetic moments of the electrons between them and also with the magnetic moments of the nucleus was taken into account through a cosine term in the Coulomb potential. The obtained results are in agreement with experimental data.
Potential energy curves for excited leptonic states of the helium-antihydrogen system are calculated within Ritz' variational approach. An explicitly correlated ansatz for the leptonic wave function is employed describing accurately the motion of the leptons (two electrons and positron) in the field of the helium nucleus and of the antiproton with arbitrary orbital angular momentum projection $Λ$ onto the internuclear axis. Results for $Λ$=0, 1 and 30 are presented. For quasibound states with large values of $Λ$ and rotational quantum numbers $J>Λ$ no annihilation and rearrangement decay chann…
Effective Hamiltonians for doubly excited Heliums states based on approximate O(4) symmetry are revised. New quantum numbers for a 4D Harmonic Oscillator are assigned to Helium states with both electrons in the n=2 shell. An effective Hamiltonian operator is constructed and optimzed by means of non-linear least-square fits to the energy levels of the Helium isoelectronic series. The results are interpreted in terms of electron correlation and a possible unified description of two-electron atom intrashell states.
We consider a neutralization of excited antiprotonic helium ion accompanied by antiproton transitions to lower states in collisions with helium atoms $(\bar{p}\mathrm{He}^{2+})_{nl} + \mathrm{He} \rightarrow \left[ (\bar{p}\mathrm{He}^{2+})_{n_f l_f} e\right]_{1s} + \mathrm{He}^+$ in low-temperature medium. Interactions in the input and output channels are taken similar to the potentials of $\mathrm{H}^+ - \mathrm{He}$ ($X^1Σ$) and $\mathrm{H} - \mathrm{He}^+$ ($A^1Σ$) systems, respectively. The final term is shifted down by the antiproton transition energy. Therefore initial and final terms c…
A spectral approach is used to evaluate energies and widths for a wide range of singlet and triplet resonance states of helium. Data for total angular momentum $L=1,...,4$ is presented for resonances up to below the 5th single ionization threshold. In addition the expectation value of $\cos(θ_{12})$ is given for the calculated resonances.
We calculate ground-state energies and densities of a helium atom confined in an impenetrable spherical box within density functional theory. These calculations are performed by variationally solving Kohn-Sham equation with the ground-state orbital expanded in terms of Slater-type orbitals. Using the ground-state densities we then calculate static linear polarizability and nonlinear hyperpolarizability and study their variation with the radius of confinement. We find that polarizability decreases monotonically with decreasing confinement radius and the hyperpolarizability not only decreases bu…
In this work, we study the quantum entanglement for doubly excited resonance states in helium by using highly correlated Hylleraas type functions to represent such states of the two-electron system. The doubly-excited resonance states are determined by calculation of density of resonance states under the framework of the stabilization method. The spatial (electron-electron orbital) entanglement measures for the low-lying doubly excited 2s2, 2s3s, and 2p2 1Se states are carried out. Once a resonance state wave function is obtained, the linear entropy and von Neumann entropy for such a state are…
We show that the correlation dynamics in coherently excited doubly excited resonances of helium can be followed in real time by two-photon interferometry. This approach promises to map the evolution of the two-electron wave packet onto experimentally easily accessible non-coincident single electron spectra. We analyze the interferometric signal in terms of a semi-analytical model which is validated by a numerical solution of the time-dependent two-electron Schrödinger equation in its full dimensionality.
The author supposes a capability of transition doubly excited configurations of separate atoms to a superconducting state. The conditions of this transition are determined and the experiments for its detection are offered. The capability of join of superconducting atoms in a superconducting condensate is considered. The capability of spontaneous formation of similar condensates in atmospheres of the Earth and Sun is considered.
We discuss the dynamics of the two-photon resonant ionization of helium involving two autoionizing states in the presence of two-color laser fields. The first source is tuned around the transition from the ground state to the 2s2p 1Po autoionizing state, and the second couples the state 2s2p 1Po to the 2p2 1S autoionizing state. The laser coupling between the doubly excited states is shown to lead to modifications of the Beutler-Fano profile and the appearance of an Autler-Townes doublet. This double resonance effect between autoionizing states can be observed at moderate laser intensities eas…
The Lagrange-mesh method has the simplicity of a calculation on a mesh and can have the accuracy of a variational method. It is applied to the study of a confined helium atom. Two types of confinement are considered. Soft confinements by potentials are studied in perimetric coordinates. Hard confinement in impenetrable spherical cavities is studied in a system of rescaled perimetric coordinates varying in [0,1] intervals. Energies and mean values of the distances between electrons and between an electron and the helium nucleus are calculated. A high accuracy of 11 to 15 significant figures is …
We report on the observation of time-resolved quantum beats in the helium fluorescence from the transition 1s3p -> 1s2s, where the initial state is excited by XUV free-electron laser radiation. The quantum beats originate from the Zeeman splitting of the magnetic substates due to an external magnetic field. We perform a systematic study of this effect and discuss the possibilities of studying this phenomenon in the XUV and x-ray regime.
Strong-field manipulation of autoionizing states is a crucial aspect of electronic quantum control. Recent measurements of the attosecond transient absorption spectrum of helium dressed by a few-cycle visible pulse [Ott et al., arXiv:1205.0519[physics.atom-ph] ] provide evidence of novel ultrafast resonant phenomena, namely, two-photon Rabi oscillations between doubly-excited states and the inversion of Fano profiles. Here we present the results of accurate \emph{ab-initio} calculations that agree with these observations and in addition predict that (i) inversion of Fano profiles is actually p…
In this paper, we report the results of measurements of the intensities and delays of super-radiance decays from excited helium atoms at multiple wavelengths. The experiment was performed using extreme ultraviolet radiation produced by the free electron laser at the SPring-8 Compact SASE Source test accelerator facility as an excitation source. We observed super-radiant transitions on the $1s3p \to 1s2s$ ($λ=$502 nm), $1s3d \to 1s2p$ ($λ=$668 nm), and $1s3s \to 1s2p$ ($λ=$728 nm) transitions. The pulse energy of each transition and its delay time were measured as a function of the target heliu…
The recoil, vacuum polarization and electron vertex corrections of first and second orders in the fine structure constant $α$ and the ratio of electron to muon and electron to α-particle masses are calculated in the hyperfine splitting of the $1s^{(e)}_{1/2}2s^{(μ)}_{1/2}$ state of muonic helium atom (μe ^4_2He) on the basis of a perturbation theory. We obtain total result for the muonically excited state hyperfine splitting $Δν^{hfs}=4295.66$ MHz which improves previous calculations due to the account of new corrections and more accurate treatment of the electron vertex contribution.
The quantum entanglement for the two electrons in the excited states of the helium-like atom/ions is investigated using the two-electron wave functions constructed by the B-spline basis. As a measure of the spatial (electron-electron orbital) entanglement, the von Neumann entropy and linear entropy of the reduced density matrix are calculated for the 1s2s 1,3S excited states for systems with some selected Z values from Z=2 to Z=100. Results for the helium atom are compared with other available calculations. We have also investigated the entropies for these excited states when the nucleus charg…
The present work studies aspects of the electronic correlation in confined H$^{-}$, He and Li$^+$ atoms in their ground states using the informational entropies. In this way, different variational wavefunctions are employed in order of better take account of Coulomb correlation. The obtained values for the $S_r$, $S_p$ and $S_t$ entropies are sensitive in relation to Coulomb correlation effects. In the strong confinement regime, the effects of the Coulomb correlation are negligible and the employment of the models of independent particle and two non-interacting electrons confined by a impenetr…
Classical variable stars called RR Lyrae stars have pulsating outer envelopes comprised of excited atoms. Here we demonstrate that the qualitative and quantitative properties of RR Lyrae variables and one subclass of their atomic scale constituents: singly-excited helium atoms undergoing transitions between Rydberg states, share a remarkable degree of self-similarity. In terms of masses, radii, oscillation periods, morphologies and kinematics the stellar and atomic analogues obey a simple set of discrete self-similar scaling equations. The concept of stellar/atomic self-similarity may prove us…
The total energies and various bound state properties of the excited $2^1S(L = 0)-$states in two-electron helium atoms, including the ${}^{\infty}$He, ${}^4$He and ${}^3$He atoms, are determined to very high numerical accuracy. The convergence of the results obtained for some electron-nuclear and electron-electron expectation values and, in particular, for the electron-nuclear and electron-electron cusp values, is discussed. The field component of the isotope shift and lowest order QED correction are estimated for the $2^1S(L = 0)-$states in the ${}^4$He and ${}^3$He atoms. We also apply our h…
It is shown that one can stimulate, by using the present-day laboratory magnetic fields, transitions between the $lm$ sub-levels of fast $μHe^+$ ions formating in muon catalyzed fusion. Strong fields also cause the self-ionization from highly excited states of such muonic ions. Both effects are the consequence of the interaction of the bound muon with the oscillating field of the Stark term coupling the center-of-mass and muon motions of the $μHe^+$ ion due to the non-separability of the collective and internal variables in this system. The performed calculations show a possibility to drive th…
We find the threshold structure of the two- and three-nucleon systems, with the deuteron and 3H/3He as the only bound nuclei, sufficient to predict a pair of four-nucleon states: a deeply bound state which is identified with the helium-4 ground state, and a shallow, unstable state at an energy 0.38(25) MeV above the triton-proton threshold which is consistent with data on the first excited state of helium-4. The analysis employs the framework of Pionless EFT at leading order with a generalized regulator prescription which probes renormalization-group invariance of the two states with respect t…
We analyze how bound-state excitation, electron exchange and the residual binding potential influence above-threshold ionization (ATI) in Helium prepared in an excited $p$ state, oriented parallel and perpendicular to a linearly polarized mid-IR field. Using ab initio B-spline Algebraic Diagrammatic Construction (ADC), and several one-electron methods with effective potentials, including the Schrödinger solver Qprop, modified versions of the Strong-Field Approximation and the Coulomb-Quantum Orbit Strong-Field Approximation (CQSFA), we find that these specific physical mechanisms leave signifi…
We illustrate how attosecond light pulses can be used to directly mapping out the time-dependence of the correlated motion of two excited atomic electrons, discuss how the two-electron correlations manifest themselves in realistic attosecond measurements, and propose the following for experimental exploration: (a) The single ionization signals which directly reveal bending-vibrational motion of the correlated electron pair, (b) and also its rotational motion. (c) The double ionization signals which directly reveal the two-electron density in momentum space. To facilitate the description of the…
Photoelectron spectroscopy of 3s3p doubly excited helium dressed with strong near-infrared laser fields
Nagoya University（名古屋大学）；RIKEN, SPring-8 Center（理化学研究所 SPring-8 中心）；Fu-Jen Catholic University（辅仁大学）；Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute（日本同步辐射研究机构）；University of Toyama（富山大学）
The analysis of correlation energy of the simplest first approximation of a variational method for the intrashell states of two-electron atoms is the purpose of the present work. This method allows to divide energy of atom on Coulomb and additional not - Coulomb correlation parts with very high accuracy. Thus all the Coulomb interaction completely is taken into account in calculation and not-Coulomb terms enter only in additional correlation energy. The general formula for energy of additional correlation interaction is obtained and the constant of this interaction is determined. The algorithm…
We describe a numerical method that simulates the interaction of the helium atom with sequences of femtosecond and attosecond light pulses. The method, which is based on the close-coupling expansion of the electronic configuration space in a B-spline bipolar spherical harmonic basis, can accurately reproduce the excitation and single ionization of the atom, within the electrostatic approximation. The time dependent Schrödinger equation is integrated with a sequence of second-order split-exponential unitary propagators. The asymptotic channel-, energy- and angularly-resolved photoelectron distr…
Partial autoionization rates of doubly excited one-dimensional helium in the collinear Zee and eZe configuration are obtained by means of the complex rotation method. The approach presented here relies on a projection of back-rotated resonance wave functions onto singly ionized $\textrm{He}^{+}$ channel wave functions and the computation of the corresponding particle fluxes. In spite of the long-range nature of the Coulomb potential between the electrons and the nucleus, an asymptotic region where the fluxes are stationary is clearly observed. Low-lying doubly excited states are found to decay…
The precise calculations of blackbody radiation (BBR)-induced Stark shifts and depopulation rates for low-lying states of helium atom with the use of variational approach are presented. An effect of the BBR-induced induced Stark-mixing of energy levels is considered. It is shown that this effect leads to a significant reduction of lifetimes of helium excited states. As a consequence the influence of Stark-mixing effect on the decay rates of metastable states in helium is discussed in context of formation processes of the cosmic microwave background.
Based on numerical solutions of the time-dependent Schrödinger equation for either one or two active electrons, we propose a method for observing instantaneous level shifts in an oscillating strong infrared (IR) field in time, using a single tunable attosecond pulse to probe excited states of the perturbed atom. The ionization probability in the combined fields depends on both, the frequency of the attosecond pulse and the time delay between both pulses, since the IR field shifts excited energy levels into and out of resonance with the attosecond probe pulse. We show that this method (i) allow…
We discuss the results of the calculation of the photoionization with de-excitation of excited He and helium-like ions Li$^{+}$ and B$^{3+}$ at high but non-relativistic photon energies $ω$. Several lower $^{1}S$ and $^{3}S$ states are considered. We present and analyze the ratios $R_{d}^{+\ast}$ of the cross sections of photoionization with de-excitation, $σ_{(d)}^{+\ast}(ω)$, and of the photo-ionization with excitation, $σ^{+\ast}(ω)$. The dependence of $R_{d}^{+\ast}$ on the excitation of the target object and the charge of its nucleus is presented. Apart to theoretical interest, results ob…
Collisions between tightly confined atoms can lead to ionization and hence to loss of atoms from the trap. We develop second-order perturbation theory for a tensorial perturbation of a spherically symmetric system and the theory is then applied to processes mediated by the spin-dipole interaction. Redistribution and loss mechanisms are studied for the case of spin-polarized metastable helium atoms and results obtained for the five lowest s states in the trap and trapping frequencies ranging from 1 kHz to 10 MHz.
The hyperspherical harmonics (HH) provide a complete basis for the expansion of atomic wave functions, but even for two particles the number of harmonics for a given order is not trivial and, as the number of electrons increases, this degeneracy becomes absolutely prohibitive. We modify the method by selecting a subset of the basis that, we feel, will yield the physically most important part of the wave function, and test the idea on simple systems. In a previous work (with M. Haftel) of the singlet ground and first excited states of the helium atom we found that the error in the binding energ…
Helium atom is the simplest many-body electronic system provided by nature. The exact solution to the Schrödinger equation is known for helium ground and excited states, and represents a workbench for any many-body methodology. Here, we check the ab initio many-body GW approximation and Bethe-Salpeter equation (BSE) against the exact solution for helium. Starting from Hartree-Fock, we show that GW and BSE yield impressively accurate results on excitation energies and oscillator strength, systematically improving time-dependent Hartree-Fock. These findings suggest that the accuracy of BSE and G…
We investigate the electromagnetic transition probabilities for the helium atom embedded in a superstrong magnetic field taking into account the finite nuclear mass. We address the regime γ=100-10000 a.u. studying several excited states for each symmetry, i.e. for the magnetic quantum numbers 0,-1,-2,-3, positive and negative z parity and singlet and triplet symmetry. The oscillator strengths as a function of the magnetic field, and in particular the influence of the finite nuclear mass on the oscillator strengths are shown and analyzed.
Circular Rydberg states with $n=70$ have been prepared in helium using a modified version of the crossed-fields method. This approach to the preparation of high-$n$ circular Rydberg states overcomes limitations of the standard crossed-fields method which arise at this, and higher, values of $n$. The experiments were performed with atoms traveling in pulsed supersonic beams that were initially laser photoexcited from the metastable 1s2s$\,^3$S$_1$ level to the 1s73s$\,^3$S$_1$ level by resonance-enhanced two-color two-photon excitation in a magnetic field of 16.154 G. These excited atoms were t…
We observe light-induced frequency shifts in one-color photoassociative spectra of magnetically trapped $^4$He$^*$ atoms in the metastable $2^3S_1$ state. A pair of ultracold spin-polarized $2^3S_1$ helium atoms is excited into a molecular bound state in the purely long range $0_u^+$ potential connected to the $2^3S_1 - 2^3P_0$ asymptote. The shift arises from the optical coupling of the molecular excited bound state with the scattering states and the bound states of two colliding $2^3S_1$ atoms. We measure the frequency-shifts for several ro-vibrational levels in the $0^+_u$ potential and fin…
We present the first measurement for helium atoms of the tune-out wavelength at which the atomic polarizability vanishes. We utilise a novel, highly sensitive technique for precisely measuring the effect of variations in the trapping potential of confined metastable ($2^{3}S_{1}$) helium atoms illuminated by a perturbing laser light field. The measured tune-out wavelength of 413.0938($9_{Stat.}$)($20_{Syst.}$) nm compares well with the value predicted by a theoretical calculation (413.02(9) nm) which is sensitive to finite nuclear mass, relativistic, and quantum electro-dynamic (QED) effects. …
The electronic density ρ(r) in atoms, molecules and solids is, in general, a distribution that can be observed experimentally, containing spatial information projected from the total wave function. These density distributions can be though as probability distributions subject to the scrutiny of the analytical methods of information theory, namely, entropy measures, quantifiers for the complexity, or entanglement measures. Although the classification of resonant doubly excited states of He-like atoms in terms of labels of approximate quantum numbers have not been exempt from controversies, a we…
We present experimental results on the two-body loss rates in a magneto-optical trap of metastable helium atoms. Absolute rates are measured in a systematic way for several laser detunings ranging from -5 to -30 MHz and at different intensities, by monitoring the decay of the trap fluorescence. The dependence of the two-body loss rate coefficient $β$ on the excited state ($2^3P_2$) and metastable state ($2^3S_1$) populations is also investigated. From these results we infer a rather uniform rate constant $K_{sp}=(1{\pm}0.4)\times10^{-7}$ cm$^3$/s.
Improvements in both theory and frequency metrology of few-electron systems such as hydrogen and helium have enabled increasingly sensitive tests of quantum electrodynamics (QED), as well as ever more accurate determinations of fundamental constants and the size of the nucleus. At the same time advances in cooling and trapping of neutral atoms have revolutionized the development of increasingly accurate atomic clocks. Here, we combine these fields to reach the highest precision on an optical tranistion in the helium atom to date by employing a Bose-Einstein condensate confined in a magic wavel…
A rapid and relatively simple scheme of calculation is elaborated and applied to cosmological recombination of helium. Employing the nonrelativistic Coulomb Green's function, a wavefunction of a colliding electron is represented in an integral form applicable for calculations. Bound electrons of helium are described by the Hartree-Fock wavefunctions. The free-bound transition probabilities into excited states of helium, and the probabilities of bound-bound transitions in helium are calculated in different modes. It is revealed that free-bound transition probabilities weakly depend on to what e…
Photoelectron emission from excited states of laser-dressed atomic helium is analyzed with respect to laser intensity-dependent excitation energy shifts and angular distributions. In the two-color XUV (exteme ultra\-violet) -- IR (infrared) measurement, the XUV photon energy is scanned between \SI{20.4}{\electronvolt} and the ionization threshold at \SI{24.6}{\electronvolt}, revealing electric dipole-forbidden transitions for a temporally overlapping IR pulse ($\sim\!\SI{e12}{\watt\per \centi\meter\squared}$). The interpretation of the experimental results is supported by numerically solving t…
Electron-electron correlation forms the basis of difficulties encountered in many-body physics. Accurate treatment of the correlation problem is likely to unravel some nice physical properties of matter embedded in the correlation. In an effort to tackle the many-body problem, an empirically determined symmetry-dependent partition fraction for the electron-electron interaction energy between two interacting states of helium atom is suggested in this study. Using the partition fraction and the lowest-order approximation of the multipole series expansion of the electron-electron interaction, a s…
Ultra-Compact accurate wave functions for He-like and Li-like iso-electronic sequences and variational calculus. II. Spin-singlet (excited) and spin-triplet (lowest) states of the Helium sequence
Precision spectroscopy of simple atomic systems has refined our understanding of the fundamental laws of quantum physics. In particular, helium spectroscopy has played a crucial role in describing two-electron interactions, determining the fine-structure constant and extracting the size of the helium nucleus. Here we present a measurement of the doubly-forbidden 1557-nanometer transition connecting the two metastable states of helium (the lowest energy triplet state 2 3S1 and first excited singlet state 2 1S0), for which quantum electrodynamic and nuclear size effects are very strong. This tra…
A harmonic oscillator model in four dimensions is presented for the helium atom to estimate the distance to the inner and outer electron from the nucleus, the angle between electrons and the energy levels. The method is algebraic and is not based on the choice of correct trial wave function. Three harmonic oscillators and thus three quantum numbers are sufficient to describe the two-electron system. We derive a simple formula for the energy in the general case and in the special case of the Wannier Ridge. For a set of quantum numbers the distance to the electrons and the angle between the elec…
