Abstract
The magnetic hyperfine splitting of the ground state of the lithium atom is calculated. It is shown that the discrepancy between experiment and the value calculated in the traditional Hartree-Fock approximation can be accounted for quantitatively by the exchange polarization effect, which distorts one orbital relative to the other. The present calculation obtains a value within one percent of the experimental value. A general procedure is proposed for evaluating operators that do not commute with the Hamiltonian, when approximate variational methods must be used.
- Received 30 November 1959
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRev.118.681
©1960 American Physical Society