RELATIVISTIC PREDICTION OF THE GROUND-STATE OF ATOMIC LAWRENCIUM

In contradiction to the prediction of the Periodic Table but in agreement with earlier suggestions by Brewer and Mann, the ground state configuration of atomic Lawrencium (Z equals 103) will not be 7s**2 6d **2D//3/////2 but 7s**2 7p **2P//1/////2. The reason for this deviation from normal trends across the Periodic Table are strong relativistic effects on the outermost 7p//1/////2 orbital. Multiconfiguration Dirac-Fock calculations are reported for Lawrencium and analogous lighter atoms. These calculations include contributions from magnetic and retardation interactions and an estimation of quantum electrodynamic corrections.