Angular and polarization analysis for two-photon decay of 2s hyperfine states of hydrogenlike Uranium

Abstract

The amplitude of two-photon transitions between hyperfine states in hydrogenlike ions is derived based on relativistic Dirac equation and second order perturbation theory. We study angular and linear polarization properties of the photon pair emitted in the decay of $2s$ states, where spin-flip and non-spin-flip transitions are highlighted. We pay particular attention to hydrogenlike uranium, since it is an ideal candidate for investigating relativistic and high-multipole effects, such as spin-flip transitions. Two types of emission patterns are identified: i) non-spin-flip transitions are found to be characterized by an angular distribution of the type $W(\theta )\sim 1+{\cos }^2\theta$ while the polarizations of the emitted photons are parallel; ii) spin-flip transitions have somewhat smaller decay rates and are found to be characterized by an angular distribution of the type $W(\theta )\sim 1-1/3{\cos }^2\theta$ while the polarizations of the emitted photons are orthogonal, where $\theta$ is the angle between photons directions. Deviations due to non-dipole and relativistic contributions are evaluated for both types of transitions. This work is the first step toward exploring the effect of nucleus over the the angular and polarization properties of the photon pairs emitted by two-photon transitions.

arXiv comment6 pages, 3 figures,will be published in Phys. Rev. A (2014). arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1203.6601

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• Hyperfine structure in hydrogen and helium ion
• Nuclear effects in atomic transitions
• Relativistic total cross section and angular distribution for Rayleigh scattering by atomic hydrogen
• Relativistic polarization analysis of Rayleigh scattering by atomic hydrogen
• Angular correlations in the two--photon decay of helium--like heavy ions
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• Polarization correlations in the two--photon decay of hydrogen--like ions

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Quantum interference effects in laser spectroscopy of muonic hydrogen, deuterium, and helium-3
• Relativistic evaluation of the two-photon decay of the metastable ${1s}^{2} 2s 2p~^3\mbox{P}_0$ state in berylliumlike ions with an active-electron model
• Spin effects probed by Rayleigh X-ray scattering off hydrogenic ions