Relativistic contributions to single and double core electron ionization energies of noble gases

Abstract

We have performed relativistic calculations of single and double core 1s hole states of the noble gas atoms in order to explore the relativistic corrections and their additivity to the ionization potentials. Our study unravels the interplay of progression of relaxation, dominating in the single and double ionization potentials of the light elements, versus relativistic one-electron effects and quantum electrodynamic effects, which dominate toward the heavy end. The degree of direct relative additivity of the relativistic corrections for the single electron ionization potentials to the double electron ionization potentials is found to gradually improve toward the heavy elements. The Dirac-Coulomb Hamiltonian is found to predict a scaling ratio of ∼4 for the relaxation induced relativistic energies between double and single ionization. Z-scaling of the computed quantities were obtained by fitting to power law. The effects of nuclear size and form were also investigated and found to be small. The results indicate that accurate predictions of double core hole ionization potentials can now be made for elements across the full periodic table.