Lamb Shift and Binding Energies of<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>K</mml:mi></mml:math>Electrons in Heavy Atoms

Abstract

The self-energy of $K$ electrons in atoms with atomic numbers in the range $70\ensuremath{\le}Z\ensuremath{\le}90$ is determined numerically. Detailed theoretical evaluations of $K$-electron binding energies including all effects of $O(\ensuremath{\alpha}m{c}^{2})$ are given for the four heavy closed-subshell atoms - W, Hg, Pb, and Rn - in the range considered. With the present values of the electron self-energy, the theoretical $K$-shell binding energies for these elements are found to agree with experimental determinations to better than 1 part in ${10}^{4}$.