Accurate calculation of multipole polarizabilities for one-electron atom in Debye plasmas

Abstract

The electric multipole polarizabilities of one-electron atoms embedded in weakly coupled Debye plasmas are calculated in the non-relativistic framework. The static dipole, quadrupole, octopole, and hexadecapole polarizabilities for hydrogen atoms in both ground and excited states at a variety of Debye screening parameters are calculated in high precision based on the sum-over-states method, where the system bound and continuum states are produced by employing the generalized pseudospectral method. It is shown that the contribution of bound states to the polarizability decreases with increasing the plasma screening strength, whereas the contribution of continuum states is enhanced. At very small screening parameters where the plasma environment starts to take effect, it is found that the 2l-pole polarizability for s-wave states with principle quantum number n≥l+1 has an abrupt change from its non-screening value to infinity. We attribute such a phenomenon to the sudden non-degeneracy of different angular momentum states in the n shell. With continuously increasing the screening strength, the polarizabilities for n≥l+1 states decrease to certain values and, eventually, they approach to infinity at the critical screening parameter. For states with n≤l, the 2l-pole polarizabilities show regular enhancement from the non-screening value to infinity. The present results are compared with other theoretical calculations available in the literature and it is shown that our work has established by now the most accurate predictions of multipole oscillator strengths and polarizabilities for one-electron atoms in Debye plasmas.