Many-body relativistic random phase

To account for the interchannel coupling, or, which is the same, electron correlation in calculations of photoionization parameters, various many-body theories exist. In this paper, following Refs. [20,29,30,33], the focus is on results obtained in the framework of both the nonrelativistic random phase approximation with exchange (RPAE) [55] and its relativistic analogy the relativistic random phase approximation (RRPA) [56]. RPAE makes use of a nonrelativistic HF approximation as the zero-order approximation. RRPA is based upon the relativistic Dirac HF approximation as the zero-order basis, so that relativistic effects are included not as perturbations but explicitly. Both RPAE and RRPA implicitly sum up certain electron-electron perturbations, including the interelectron interaction between electrons from... 

Next the results from the relativistic random-phase approximation (RRPA) and the many-body perturbation theory (MBPT), also shown in Table 5.1, will be discussed. Because both calculations include basically the same electron-electron interactions, rather good agreement exists, and it is sufficient to concentrate only on the RRPA model. 

In the paragraphs below we review some of the recent progress on relativi tlc many-body calculations which provide partial answers to the first of these questions and we also describe work on the Brelt Interaction and QED corrections which addresses the second question. We begin in Section IT with a review of applications of the DF approximation to treat inner-shell problems, where correlation corrections are insignificant, but where the Breit Interaction and QED corrections are important. Next, we discuss, in Section III, the multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock (MCDF) approximation which is a many-body technique appropriate for treating correlation effects in outer shells. Finally, in Section IV, we turn to applications of the relativistic random-phase approximation (RRPA) to treat correlation effects, especially in systems involving continuum states. 

Another nonrelativistic many-body theory which has a relativistic extension is the random phase approximation. This theory is discussed in detail by W. Johnson in this volume, so we will not consider it further, other than to remark that- one possible attraction of this technique is that oscillator strengths it produces are gauge invariant. 

During this same period theoretical techniques which can account for electron correlations have been developed and refined. Many calculations have been carried out using many-body perturbation theory (MBPT), R-matrix theory,6 the random phase approximation with exchange (RPAE), and other related techniques. This article will focus on nonrelativistic calculations since relativistic calculations such as the RRPA will be covered in the article by W, Johnson in this volume. 

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