STRENGTHS OF HIGH RYDBERG MEMBERS IN ALKALI SPECTRA WITHIN THE G-HARTREE OPTIMIZED MEAN-FIELD

Calculations of the f-values of transitions to high Rydberg states of the alkali atoms Li, Na and K are reported and compared with recent experimental data. It is shown that the g-Hartree method is particularly well suited for this type of calculation. The absolute f values obtained io first order are milch closer to the measurements than are obtained by the Dirac-Fock method. Nevertheless, some discrepancies between theory and experiment persist, especially in the slopes of the df/dE curves. We discuss the origins of this discrepancy with reference to both the theoretical model and the experimental methods. Our conclusion is that the usual zero order scheme (Hartree-Fock) is in fact inappropriate to represent highly excited Rydberg states as compared to a g-Hartree mean field which subsumes most of the significant correlations.