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T. A. Isaev

Publications and source records attributed to T. A. Isaev.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Pinning down electron correlations in RaF via spectroscopy of excited states and high-accuracy relativistic quantum chemistry

We report the spectroscopy of the 14 lowest excited electronic states in the radioactive molecule radium monofluoride (RaF). The observed excitation energies are compared with fully relativistic state-of-the-art Fock-space coupled cluster (FS-RCC) calculations, which achieve an agreement of >=99.64% (within ~12 meV) with experiment for all states. Guided by theory, a firm assignment of the angular momentum and term symbol is made for 10 states and a tentative assignment for 4 states. The role of high-order electron correlation and quantum electrodynamics effects in the excitation energy of excited states is studied, found to be important for all states. Establishing the simultaneous accuracy and precision of calculations is an important step for research at the intersection of particle, nuclear, and chemical physics, including searches of physics beyond the Standard Model, for which RaF is a promising probe.

physics.atom-ph

Isotope Shifts of Radium Monofluoride Molecules

Isotope shifts of $^{223-226,228}$Ra$^{19}$F were measured for different vibrational levels in the electronic transition $A^{2}{}Π_{1/2}\leftarrow X^{2}{}Σ^{+}$. The observed isotope shifts demonstrate the particularly high sensitivity of radium monofluoride to nuclear size effects, offering a stringent test of models describing the electronic density within the radium nucleus. Ab initio quantum chemical calculations are in excellent agreement with experimental observations. These results highlight some of the unique opportunities that short-lived molecules could offer in nuclear structure and in fundamental symmetry studies.

nucl-ex

Ab initio study and assignment of electronic states in molecular RaCl

Radium compounds have attracted recently considerable attention due to both development of experimental techniques for high-precision laser spectroscopy of molecules with short-lived nuclei and amenability of certain radium compounds for direct cooling with lasers. Currently, radium monofluoride (RaF) is one of the most studied molecules among the radium compounds, both theoretically and recently also experimentally. Complementary studies of further diatomic radium derivatives are highly desired to assess the influence of chemical substitution on diverse molecular parameters, especially on those connected with laser cooling, such as vibronic transition probabilities, and those related to violations of fundamental symmetries. In this article high-precision \emph{ab initio} studies of electronic and vibronic levels of diatomic radium monochloride (RaCl) are presented. Recently developed approaches for treating electronic correlation with Fock-space coupled cluster methods are applied for this purpose. Theoretical results are compared to an early experimental investigation by Lagerqvist and used to partially reassign the experimentally observed transitions and molecular electronic levels of RaCl. Effective constants of $\mathcal{P}$-odd hyperfine interaction $W_{\rm{a}}$ and $\mathcal{P,T}$-odd scalar-pseudoscalar nucleus-electron interaction $W_{\rm{s}}$ in the ground electronic state of RaCl are estimated within the framework of a quasirelativistic Zeroth-Order Regular Approximation approach and compared to parameters in RaF and RaOH.

physics.chem-ph

Lasercooled radium monofluoride: A molecular all-in-one probe for new physics

The particular advantages of using the diatomic molecule radium monofluoride (RaF) as a versatile molecular probe for physics beyond the Standard Model are highlighted. i) RaF was previously suggested as being potentially amenable to direct cooling with lasers. As shown in the present work, RaF's energetically lowest electronically excited state is of ${}^{2}Π$ symmetry (in contrast to BaF), such that no low-lying ${}^{2}Δ$ state prevents efficient optical cooling cycles. ii) The effective electric field acting on the unpaired electron in the electronic ground state of RaF is estimated larger than in YbF, from which the best restrictions on the electron electric dipole moment (eEDM) were obtained experimentally. iii) Favourable crossings of spin-rotational levels of opposite parity in external magnetic fields exist, which are important for the measurement of the nuclear anapole moment of nuclei with a valence neutron. Thus, RaF appears currently as one of the most attractive candidates for investigation of parity-odd as well as simultaneously parity- and time-reversal-odd interactions in the realms of molecular physics.

physics.chem-ph

Spectroscopy of short-lived radioactive molecules: A sensitive laboratory for new physics

The study of molecular systems provides exceptional opportunities for the exploration of the fundamental laws of nature and for the search for physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. Measurements of molecules composed of naturally occurring nuclei have provided the most stringent upper bounds to the electron electric dipole moment to date, and offer a route to investigate the violation of fundamental symmetries with unprecedented sensitivity. Radioactive molecules - where one or more of their atoms possesses a radioactive nucleus - can contain heavy and deformed nuclei, offering superior sensitivity for EDM measurements as well as for other symmetry-violating effects. Radium monofluoride, RaF, is of particular interest as it is predicted to have an appropriate electronic structure for direct laser cooling. Furthermore, some Ra isotopes are known to be octupole deformed, thereby resulting in a large enhancement of their symmetry-violating nuclear moments. Until now,however, no experimental measurements of RaF have been performed, and their study is impeded by major experimental challenges, as no stable isotopes of radium exist. Here, we present a novel experimental approach to study short-lived radioactive molecules using the highly sensitive collinear resonance ionisation method. With this technique we have measured, for the first time, the energetically low-lying electronic states for each of the isotopically pure RaF molecules at the ISOLDE-CERN. Our results provide strong evidence of the existence of a suitable laser-cooling scheme for these molecules and constitute a pivotal step towards high-precision studies in these systems. Our findings open up new opportunities in the synthesis, manipulation and study of short-lived radioactive molecules, which will have a direct impact in many-body physics, astrophysics, nuclear structure, and fundamental physics research.

nucl-th

Laser-coolable polyatomic molecules with heavy nuclei

Recently a number of diatomic and polyatomics molecules has been identified as a prospective systems for Doppler/Sisyphus cooling. Doppler/Sisyphus cooling allows to decrease the kinetic energy of molecules down to microkelvin temperatures with high efficiency and then capture them to molecular traps, including magneto-optical trap. Trapped molecules can be used for creation of molecular fountains and/or performing controlled chemical reactions, high-precision spectra measurements and a multitude of other applications. Polyatomic molecules with heavy nuclei present considerable interest for the search for "new physics" outside of Standard Model and other applications including cold chemistry, photochemistry, quantum informatics etc. Herein we would like to attract attention to radium monohydroxide molecule (RaOH) which is on the one hand an amenable object for laser cooling and on the other hand provides extensive possibilities for searching for P-odd and P,T-odd effects. At the moment RaOH is the heaviest polyatomic molecule proposed for direct cooling with lasers.

physics.chem-ph

Theoretical description of circular dichroism in photoelectron angular distributions of randomly oriented chiral molecules after multi-photon photoionization

Photoelectron circular dichroism refers to the forward/backward asymmetry in the photoelectron angular distribution with respect to the propagation axis of circularly polarized light. It has recently been demonstrated in femtosecond multi-photon photoionization experiments with randomly oriented camphor and fenchone molecules [C. Lux et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 51, 5001 (2012);C. S. Lehmann et al., J. Chem. Phys. 139, 234307 (2013)]. A theoretical framework describing this process as (2+1) resonantly enhanced multi-photon ionization is constructed, which consists of two-photon photoselection from randomly oriented molecules and successive one-photon ionisation of the photoselected molecules. It combines perturbation theory for the light-matter interaction with ab initio calculations for the two-photon absorption and a single-center expansion of the photoelectron wavefunction in terms of hydrogenic continuum functions. It is verified that the model correctly reproduces the basic symmetry behavior expected under exchange of handedness and light helicity. When applied it to fenchone and camphor, semi-quantitative agreement with the experimental data is found, for which a sufficient d wave character of the electronically excited intermediate state is crucial.

quant-ph

Ab initio study of radium monofluoride, RaF, as a candidate to search for P- and T,P- violation effects

Relativistic ab initio calculations have been performed to assess the suitability of RaF for experimental search of P- and T,P-violating interactions. The parameters of P- and T,P-odd terms of the spin-rotational Hamiltonian have been calculated for the ${^2}Σ$ electronic ground state of RaF molecule. They include the parameter $W_a$, which is critical in experimental search for nuclear anapole moment and the parameters $W_d$ and $W_{\rm SP}$ required to obtain restrictions on the electric dipole moment of the electron and T,P-odd scalar-pseudoscalar interactions, respectively. The parameter $X$ corresponding to the "volume effect" in the T,P$-$odd interaction of the $^{223}$Ra nuclear Schiff moment with electronic shells of RaF has also been computed. Spectroscopic and hyperfine structure constants for $^{223}$RaF and $^{223}$Ra$^+$ have been computed as well, demonstrating the accuracy of the methods employed.

physics.atom-ph

Ion neutralisation mass-spectrometry route to radium monofluoride (RaF)

The diatomic molecule radium monofluoride (RaF) has recently been proposed as a versatile probe for physics beyond the current standard model. Herein, a route towards production of a RaF molecular beam via radium ions is proposed. It takes advantage of the special electronic structure expected for group 2 halides and group 2 hydrides: The electronic ground state of neutral RaF and its monocation differ in occupation of a non-bonding orbital of $σ$ symmetry. This implies similar equilibrium distances and harmonic vibrational wavenumbers in the two charge states and thus favourable Franck--Condon factors for neutralisation without dissociation in neutralising collisions. According to the calculated ionisation energy of RaF, charge exchange collisions of RaF$^+$ with sodium atoms are almost iso-enthalpic, resulting in large cross-sections for the production of neutral radium monofluoride.

physics.chem-ph

Electron correlation and nuclear charge dependence of parity-violating properties in open-shell diatomic molecules

The scaling of nuclear spin-dependent parity violating effects with increasing nuclear charge $Z$ is discussed in two series of isovalent open-shell diatomic molecules. The parameter $W_\mathrm{a}$ characterising the strength of parity violation in diatomic molecules is calculated in the framework of the zeroth-order regular approximation (ZORA) and found to be in good agreement with the $R(Z) Z^k$ scaling law derived for atoms in which $R(Z)$ represents a relativistic enhancement factor. The influence of electron correlation is studied on the molecular level, with spin-polarisation effects being conveniently accounted for by a previously established approximate relation between the hyperfine coupling tensor and $W_\mathrm{a}$. For high accuracy predictions of parity violating effects in radium fluoride the necessity for systematically improvable correlation calculations is emphasised.

physics.chem-ph

Lasercooled RaF as a promising candidate to measure molecular parity violation

The parameter $W_\mathrm{a}$, which characterizes nuclear spin-dependent parity violation effects within the effective molecular spin-rotational Hamiltonian, was computed for the electronic ground state of radium fluoride (RaF) and found to be one of the largest absolute values predicted so far. These calculations were performed with the complex generalised Hartree-Fock method within a two-component (quasi-relativistic) zeroth-order regular approximation framework. Peculiarities of the molecular electronic structure of RaF lead to highly diagonal Franck-Condon matrices between vibrational states of the electronic ground and first excited states, which renders the molecule in principle suitable for direct laser cooling. As a trapped gas of cold molecules offers a superior coherence time, RaF can be considered a promising candidate for high-precision spectroscopic experiments aimed at the search of molecular parity-violation effects.

physics.chem-ph

Towards the electron EDM search: Theoretical study of HfF+

We report first ab initio relativistic correlation calculations of potential curves for ten low-lying electronic states, effective electric field on the electron and hyperfine constants for the ^3Δ_1 state of cation of a heavy transition metal fluoride, HfF^+, that is suggested to be used as the working state in experiments to search for the electric dipole moment of the electron. It is shown that HfF^+ has deeply bound ^1Σ^+ ground state, its dissociation energy is D_e=6.4 eV. The ^3Δ_1 state is obtained to be the relatively long-lived first excited state lying about 0.2 eV higher. The calculated effective electric field E_eff=W_d|Ω| acting on an electron in this state is 5.84*10^{24}Hz/(e*cm)

physics.atom-ph

On search for nuclear Schiff moment in liquid xenon

A parameter of the P,T-odd Hamiltonian characterizing interaction of the nuclear Schiff moment with the gradient of electronic density on the Xe nucleus is calculated for an isolated Xe atom and for liquid xenon. We use more realistic model of liquid medium than the spherical cell model used in [B.Ravaine and A.Derevianko Phys. Rev. A, 69, 050101(R)(2004)]. Qualitatively different results for enhancement of the P,T-odd effect in liquid xenon are obtained when polarization of the medium is taken into account. Thus, proper choice of the liquid phase model is crucially important even for calculation of the properties dependent mostly on the electronic density near a nucleus.

physics.chem-ph

Is E112 a relatively inert element? Benchmark relativistic correlation study of spectroscopic constants in E112H and its cation

We report the first results of relativistic correlation calculation of the spectroscopic properties for the ground state of E112H and its cation in which spin-orbit interaction is taken into account non-perturbatively. Studying the properties of E112 (eka-Hg) is required for chemical identification of its long-lived isotope, $^{283}$112. It is shown that appropriate accounting for spin-orbit effects leads to dramatic impact on the properties of E112H whereas they are not so important for E112H$^+$. The calculated equilibrium distance, $R_e^{calc}=1.662$ A, in E112H is notably smaller than $R_e^{expt}=(1.738\pm0.003)$ A and $R_e^{calc}=1.738$ A in HgH, whereas the dissociation energy, $D_e^{calc}=0.42$ eV, in E112H is close to $D_e^{expt}=0.46$ eV and $D_e^{calc}=0.41$ eV in HgH. These data are quite different from $R_e^{NH}=1.829$ A and $D_e^{NH}=0.06$ eV obtained for E112H within the scalar-relativistic Douglas-Kroll approximation [Nakajima and Hirao, Chem. Phys. Lett., 329, 511 (2000)]. Our results indicate that E112 should not be expected to be "more inert" than Hg in opposite to the results by other authors.

physics.chem-ph

In search of the electron electric dipole moment: relativistic correlation calculations of the P,T-violation effect in the ground state of HI$^+$

We report the first results of ab initio relativistic correlation calculation of the effective electric field on the electron, E_eff, in the ground state of the HI$^+$ cation. This value is required for interpretation of the suggested experiment on search for the electron electric dipole moment. The generalized relativistic effective core potential, Fock-space relativistic coupled cluster with single and double cluster amplitudes and spin-orbit direct configuration interaction methods are used, followed by nonvariational one-center restoration of the four-component wavefunction in the iodine core. The calculated value of E_eff by the coupled cluster method is E_eff=0.345\times 10^{24}Hz/e*cm. Configuration interaction study gives E_eff=0.336\times 10^{24}Hz/e*cm (our final value). The structure of chemical bonding and contributions to E_eff in HI$^+$ is clarified and significant deviation of our value from that obtained in Ravaine etal Phys.Rev.Lett., 94, 013001 (2005) is explained.

physics.atom-ph

Configuration interaction calculation of hyperfine and P,T-odd constants on ^{207}PbO excited states for the electron EDM experiments

We report first configuration interaction calculations of hyperfine constants A_\parallel and the effective electric field W_d acting on the electric dipole moment of the electron, in two excited electronic states of ^{207}PbO. The obtained hyperfine constants, A_\parallel = -3826 MHz for the a(1) state and A_\parallel = 4887 MHz for the B(1) state, are in very good agreement with the experimental data, -4113 MHz and 5000 \pm 200 MHz, respectively. We find W_d = -(6.1 ^{+1.8}_{-0.6}) 10^{24} Hz/(e cm) for a(1), and W_d = (8.0 \pm 1.6) 10^{24} Hz/(e cm) for B(1). The obtained values are analyzed and compared to recent relativistic coupled cluster results and a semiempirical estimate of W_d for the a(1) state.

physics.atom-ph

Study of P,T-Parity Violation Effects in Polar Heavy-Atom Molecules

Investigation of P,T-parity nonconservation (PNC) phenomena is of fundamental importance for physics. Experiments to search for PNC effects have been performed on TlF and YbF molecules and are in progress for PbO and PbF molecules. For interpretation of molecular PNC experiments it is necessary to calculate those needed molecular properties which cannot be measured. In particular, electronic densities in heavy-atom cores are required for interpretation of the measured data in terms of the P,T-odd properties of elementary particles or P,T-odd interactions between them. Reliable calculations of the core properties (PNC effect, hyperfine structure etc., which are described by the operators heavily concentrated in atomic cores or on nuclei) usually require accurate accounting for both relativistic and correlation effects in heavy-atom systems. In this paper, some basic aspects of the experimental search for PNC effects in heavy-atom molecules and the computational methods used in their electronic structure calculations are discussed. The latter include the generalized relativistic effective core potential (GRECP) approach and the methods of nonvariational and variational one-center restoration of correct shapes of four-component spinors in atomic cores after a two-component GRECP calculation of a molecule. Their efficiency is illustrated with calculations of parameters of the effective P,T-odd spin-rotational Hamiltonians in the molecules PbF, HgF, YbF, BaF, TlF, and PbO.

physics.atom-ph

Two-step method for precise calculation of core properties in molecules

Precise calculations of core properties in heavy-atom systems which are described by the operators heavily concentrated in atomic cores, like to hyperfine structure and P,T-parity nonconservation effects, usually require accounting for relativistic effects. Unfortunately, completely relativistic treatment of molecules containing heavy elements is very consuming already at the stages of calculation and transformation of two-electron integrals with a basis set of four-component spinors. In turn, the relativistic effective core potential (RECP) calculations of valence (spectroscopic, chemical etc.) properties of molecules are very popular because the RECP method allows one to treat quite satisfactory the correlation and relativistic effects for the valence electrons of a molecule and to reduce significantly the computational efforts. The valence molecular spinors are usually smoothed in atomic cores and, as a result, direct calculation of electronic densities near heavy nuclei is impossible. In the paper, the methods of nonvariational and variational one-center restoration of correct shapes of four-component spinors in atomic cores after a two-component RECP calculation of a molecule are discussed. Their efficiency is illustrated in correlation calculations of hyperfine structure and parity nonconservation effects in heavy-atom molecules YbF, BaF, TlF, and PbO.

physics.atom-ph