Accurate relativistic many-body calculations of van der Waals coefficients C8 and C10 for alkali-metal dimers

We consider long-range interactions between two alkali-metal atoms in their respective ground states. We extend the previous relativistic many-body calculations of C-6 dispersion coefficients [Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 3589 (1999)] to higher-multipole coefficients C-8 and C-10. Special attention is paid to usually omitted contribution of core-excited states. We calculate this contribution within relativistic random-phase approximation and demonstrate that for heavy atoms core excitations contribute as much as 10% to the dispersion coefficients. We tabulate results for both homonuclear and heteronuclear dimers and estimate theoretical uncertainties. The estimated uncertainties for C-8 coefficients range from 0.5% for Li-2 to 4% for Cs-2. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.