Breit Interaction and Double<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>K</mml:mi></mml:math>Vacancies in Nuclear Transitions

Abstract

It is shown that the energy shift of $K$ x rays emitted by an atom doubly ionized in the $K$ shell comprises a 16% Breit-interaction contribution for $Z=81$ and thus constitutes a sensitive test of these corrections. The calculated shift of the $K{\ensuremath{\alpha}}_{1}$ line agrees with the present experiment (1160 \ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{} 70 e V). This invalidates the much larger 2100-e V shift, reported by another group, which appears to be due to spurious effects.