arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Jean-Christophe Pain.
We provide a family of expressions of $π$ in terms of the golden ratio $ϕ$ in the same spirit of the formula obtained by Bailey, Borwein and Plouffe for $π$. Connection with cyclotomic polynomials is outlined.
We propose a simple derivation of an upper bound for the perimeter of an ellipse. The procedure, which relies on the use of elliptic integrals, consists in introducing, via inequalities and convexity properties, specific integrals which can be calculated analytically.
In the Ziman-Evans formulation, the electrical resistivity involves several quantities like the plasma mean ionization and chemical potential, the electron-ion scattering cross-section, the ion-ion structure factor, and the derivative of the Fermi distribution with respect to electron energy. Therefore, in order to make significant progress while comparing different models or analyzing experimental measurements, it is important to try to get insight into such partial physical quantities. In the present work, we propose to investigate the sensitivity of the resistivity to the different physical quantities required for its computation.
We present sum rules for Clebsch-Gordan coefficients in the framework of SO(4) group-theoretical description of the hydrogen atom. The main results are obtained using properties of the Runge-Lenz- Pauli vector, in particular expressing the matrix elements of the powers of its last component both in spherical and parabolic basis. Connections with Stark effect and diamagnetism of the hydrogen atom are outlined.
In this didactic note, we describe a procedure to derive successive approximations of $π$ using Euler Beta functions. It is an interesting exercise for undergraduate students, since it involves polynomial roots, integral calculations, inequalities and Euler Beta functions.
In many fields of statistical physics, for instance in the study of the liquid-gas phase transition in finite nuclear matter, the Virial coefficients of the Fermi gas play a major role. In this note, we provide relations, sum rules, analytical formulas and numerical values for such coefficients.
We propose closed-form expressions of the distributions of magnetic quantum number $M$ and total angular momentum $J$ for three and four fermions in single-$j$ orbits. The latter formulas consist of polynomials with coefficients satisfying congruence properties. Such results, derived using doubly-recursive relations over $j$ and the number of fermions, enable us to deduce explicit expressions for the total number of levels in the case of three-, four- and five-fermion systems. We present applications of these formulas, such as sum rules for six-$j$ and nine-$j$ symbols, obtained from the connection with fractional-parentage coefficients, an alternative proof of the Ginocchio-Haxton relation or cancellation properties of the number of levels with a given angular momentum.
Analytical expressions of the total number of $J$ levels for three and four fermions in a nuclear $j^n$ shell are provided. The formulas were derived using a combination of sum rules for coefficients of fractional parentage, and "unusual" identities, i.e. which do not contain the weighting factor $(2J + 1)$ involving $6j$ and $9j$ symbols.
This paper is devoted to the analysis of the distribution of the total angular momentum in a relativistic configuration. Using cumulants and generating function formalism this analysis can be reduced to the study of individual subshells with $N$ equivalent electrons of momentum $j$. An expression as a nth-derivative is provided for the generating function of the $J$ distribution and efficient recurrence relations are established. It is shown that this distribution may be represented by a Gram-Charlier-like series which is derived from the corresponding series for the magnetic quantum number distribution. The numerical efficiency of this expansion is fair when the configuration consists of several subshells, while the accuracy is less good when only one subshell is involved. An analytical expression is given for the odd-order momenta while the even-order ones are expressed as a series which provides an acceptable accuracy though being not convergent. Such expressions may be used to obtain approximate values for the number of transitions in a spin-orbit split array: it is shown that the approximation is often efficient when few terms are kept, while some complex cases require to include a large number of terms.
This paper is devoted to the analysis of the distribution of the total magnetic quantum number $M$ in a relativistic subshell with $N$ equivalent electrons of momentum $j$. This distribution is analyzed through its cumulants and through their generating function, for which an analytical expression is provided. This function also allows us to get the values of the cumulants at any order. Such values are useful to obtain the moments at various orders. Since the cumulants of the distinct subshells are additive this study directly applies to any relativistic configuration. Recursion relations on the generating function are given. It is shown that the generating function of the magnetic quantum number distribution may be expressed as a n-th derivative of a polynomial. This leads to recurrence relations for this distribution which are very efficient even in the case of large $j$ or $N$. The magnetic quantum number distribution is numerically studied using the Gram-Charlier and Edgeworth expansions. The inclusion of high-order terms may improve the accuracy of the Gram-Charlier representation for instance when a small and a large angular momenta coexist in the same configuration. However such series does not exhibit convergence when high orders are considered and the account for the first two terms often provides a fair approximation of the magnetic quantum number distribution. The Edgeworth series offers an interesting alternative though this expansion is also divergent and of asymptotic nature.
The use of statistical methods for the description of complex quantum systems was primarily motivated by the failure of a line-by-line interpretation of atomic spectra. Such methods reveal regularities and trends in the distributions of levels and lines. In the past, much attention was paid to the distribution of energy levels (Wigner surmise, random-matrix model...). However, information about the distribution of the lines (energy and strength) is lacking. Thirty years ago, Learner found empirically an unexpected law: the logarithm of the number of lines whose intensities lie between 2^kI_0 and 2^{k+1}I_0, I_0 being a reference intensity and k an integer, is a decreasing linear function of k. In the present work, the fractal nature of such an intriguing regularity is outlined and a calculation of its fractal dimension is proposed. Other peculiarities are also presented, such as the fact that the distribution of line strengths follows Benford's law of anomalous numbers, the existence of additional selection rules (PH coupling), the symmetry with respect to a quarter of the subshell in the spin-adapted space (LL coupling) and the odd-even staggering in the distribution of quantum numbers, pointed out by Bauche and Cossé.
We present recent evolutions of the detailed opacity code SCO-RCG which combines statistical modelings of levels and lines with fine-structure calculations. The code now includes the Partially-Resolved-Transition-Array model, which allows one to replace a complex transition array by a small-scale detailed calculation preserving energy and variance of the genuine transition array and yielding improved high-order moments. An approximate method for studying the impact of strong magnetic field on opacity and emissivity was also recently implemented. The Zeeman line profile is modeled by fourth-order Gram-Charlier expansion series, which is a Gaussian multiplied by a linear combination of Hermite polynomials. Electron collisional line broadening is often modeled by a Lorentzian function and one has to calculate the convolution of a Lorentzian with Gram-Charlier distribution for a huge number of spectral lines. Since the numerical cost of the direct convolution would be prohibitive, we propose, in order to obtain the resulting profile, a fast and precise algorithm, relying on a representation of the Gaussian by cubic splines.
The contribution of Jacques Raynal to angular-momentum theory is highly valuable. In the present article, I intend to recall the main aspects of his work related to Wigner $3j$ symbols. It is well known that the latter can be expressed with a hypergeometric series. The polynomial zeros of the $3j$ coefficients were initially characterized by the number of terms of the series minus one, which is the degree of the coefficient. A detailed study of the zeros of the $3j$ coefficient with respect to the degree $n$ for $J = a + b + c \leq 240$ ($a$, $b$ and $c$ being the angular momenta in the first line of the $3j$ symbol) by Raynal revealed that most zeros of high degree had small magnetic quantum numbers. This led him to define the order $m$ to improve the classification of the zeros of the $3j$ coefficient. Raynal did a search for the polynomial zeros of degree 1 to 7 and found that the number of zeros of degree 1 and 2 are infinite, though the number of zeros of degree larger than 3 decreases very quickly as the degree increases. Based on Whipple's transformations of hypergeometric $_3F_2$ functions with unit argument, Raynal generalized the Wigner $3j$ symbols to any arguments and pointed out that there are twelve sets of ten formulas (twelve sets of 120 generalized $3j$ symbols) which are equivalent in the usual case. In this paper, we also discuss other aspects of the zeros of $3j$ coefficients, such as the role of Diophantine equations and powerful numbers, or the alternative approach involving Labarthe patterns.
We present new sum rules for $3jm$ coefficients, which involve, in addition to the usual weighting factor $(2j + 1)$ where $j$ is an angular momentum, the quantity $[j(j + 1)]^k$ with $k \ge 1$. The sum rules appear for instance in the statistical modeling of rotational spectra within the theory of moments, and enable one to deduce the expectation values of $r^k$ (used in the theory of Stark effect for hydrogenic ions) in parabolic coordinates from the expectation values of $r^k$ in spherical coordinates.
In a recent paper [J.-C. Pain, Opt. Spectrosc. ${\bf 218}$, 1105-1109 (2020)], we discussed the link between expectation values of powers of $r$ and Clebsch-Gordan coefficients. In this short note we provide additional information, reminding that such a connection is a direct consequence of group theory. The hydrogenic radial wavefunctions form bases for infinite dimensional representations of the algebra of the non-compact group $O(2,1)$ and the expectation values $r^p$ and $r^{-p}$ ($p$ being positive) transform as tensors with respect to this algebra. As shown a long time ago by Armstrong [L. Armstrong Jr., J . Phys. (Paris) Suppl. C 4 ${\bf 31}$, 17 (1970)], analysis of matrix elements of $r^p$ and $r^{-p}$ reveals that the Wigner-Eckart theorem is valid for this group and that the corresponding Clebsch-Gordan coefficients are proportional to the usual $SO(3)$ Clebsch-Gordan coefficients. This proportionality provides simple explanations of the selection rules for hydrogenic radial matrix elements pointed out by Pasternack and Sternheimer, and the proportionality of hydrogenic expectation values of $r^p$ and $r^{-p}$ to $3jm$ symbols.
It is shown that, in the relativistic hydrogenic approximation, expectation values of the type $\langle n\ell j|r^k|n\ell j\rangle$ can be expressed in terms of Clebsch-Gordan coefficients or $3jm$ symbols. This generalizes the results obtained by Varshalovich and Karpova [Opt. Spectrosc. 118, 1-5 (2015); Opt. Spektrosk. 118, 3-7] in the non-relativistic hydrogenic case.
Partition functions of a canonical ensemble of non-interacting bound electrons are a key ingredient of the super-transition-array approach to the computation of radiative opacity. A few years ago, we published a robust and stable recursion relation for the calculation of such partition functions. In this paper, we propose an optimization of the latter method and explain how to implement it in practice. The formalism relies on the evaluation of elementary symmetric polynomials, which opens the way to further improvements.
We present three explicit formulas for the number of electronic configurations in an atom, i.e. the number of ways to distribute $Q$ electrons in $N$ subshells of respective degeneracies $g_1$, $g_2$, ..., $g_N$. The new expressions are obtained using the generating-function formalism. The first one contains sums involving multinomial coefficients. The second one relies on the idea of gathering subshells having the same degeneracy. A third one also collects subshells with the same degeneracy and leads to the definition of a two-variable generating function, allowing the derivation of recursion relations. Concerning the distribution of population on $N$ distinct subshells of a given degeneracy $g$, analytical expressions for the first moments of this distribution are given. The general case of subshells with any degeneracy is analyzed through the computation of cumulants. A fairly simple expression for the cumulants at any order is provided, as well as the cumulant generating function. Using Gram-Charlier expansion, simple approximations of the analyzed distribution in terms of a normal distribution multiplied by a sum of Hermite polynomials are given. The Edgeworth expansion has also been tested. Its accuracy is equivalent to the Gram-Charlier accuracy when few terms are kept, but it is much more rapidly divergent when the truncation order increases. While this analysis is illustrated by examples in atomic supershells it also applies to more general combinatorial problems such as fermion distributions.