Relativistic effects in many electron atoms

Abstract

With the increasing accuracy of experimental data obtained from high resolution techniques, it becomes necessary to introduce relativistic effects into the study of atomic structure. A general method of evaluating relativistic effects in atomic structure problems is described. Each operator is expressed as a product of irreducible tensors whose matrix elements are calculated using Racah algebra techniques. The question at what stage the Breit interaction should be included in the Hamiltonian is discussed.