Computation of correlation effects on the parity-nonconserving electric-dipole transition in atomic ytterbium

Abstract

A high-precision experiment to measure parity-nonconservation in atomic Yb has been proposed recently [D. De Mille, Phys. Rev. Lett. 74, 4165 (1995)]. We use a relativistic configuration-interaction approach to highlight the importance of correlation effects in the 6s2(Sup1/S Sub/0)-->6s5d(Sup3/DSub/1) parity-nonconserving electric transition amplitude for Yb. Our result shows that this transition amplitude is dramatically altered by the strong mixing between some of the configurations that make up the odd-parity 6s6p(Sup/1PSub/1) atomic state.