Tin is the chemical element with the largest number of stable isotopes. Its complete proton shell, comparable with the closed electron shells in the chemically inert noble gases, is not a mere precursor to extended stability; since the protons carry the nuclear charge, their spatial arrangement also drives the nuclear electromagnetism. We report high-precision measurements of the electromagnetic moments and isomeric differences in charge radii between the lowest 1/2⁺, 3/2⁺, and 11/2⁻ states in ^117–131Sn, obtained by collinear laser spectroscopy. Supported by state-of-the-art atomic-structure calculations, the data accurately show a considerable attenuation of the quadrupole moments in the closed-shell tin isotopes relative to those of cadmium, with two protons less. Linear and quadratic mass-dependent trends are observed. While microscopic density functional theory explains the global behaviour of the measured quantities, interpretation of the local patterns demands higher-fidelity modelling.

Atomic spectral lines from different isotopes display a small shift in energy, commonly referred to as the line isotope shift. One of the components of the isotope shift is the field shift, which depends on the extent and the shape of the nuclear charge density distribution. The purpose of this work is to investigate how sensitive field shifts are with respect to variations in the nuclear size and shape and what information of nuclear charge distributions can be extracted from measurements. Nuclear properties are obtained from nuclear density functional theory calculations based on the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approach. These results are combined with multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock methods to obtain realistic field shifts and it is seen that phenomena such as nuclear deformation and variations in the diffuseness of nuclear charge distributions give measurable contributions to the isotope shifts. Using a different approach, we demonstrate the possibility to extract information concerning the nuclear charge densities from the observed field shifts. We deduce that combining methods used in atomic and nuclear structure theory gives an improved description of field shifts and that extracting additional nuclear information from measured isotope shifts is possible in the near future with improved experimental methods.

Quantum entanglement between the degrees of freedom encountered in the classical world is challenging to observe due to the surrounding environment. To elucidate this issue, we investigate the entanglement generated over ultrafast timescales in a bipartite quantum system comprising two massive particles: a free-moving photoelectron, which expands to a mesoscopic length scale, and a light-dressed atomic ion, which represents a hybrid state of light and matter. Although the photoelectron spectra are measured classically, the entanglement allows us to reveal information about the dressed-state dynamics of the ion and the femtosecond extreme ultraviolet pulses delivered by a seeded free-electron laser. The observed generation of entanglement is interpreted using the time-dependent von Neumann entropy. Our results unveil the potential for using short-wavelength coherent light pulses from free-electron lasers to generate entangled photoelectron and ion systems for studying spooky action at a distance.

Astronomical spectroscopy has recently expanded into the near-infrared (nIR) wavelength region, raising the demands on atomic transition data. The interpretation of the observed spectra largely relies on theoretical results, and progress towards the production of accurate theoretical data must continuously be made. Spectrum calculations that target multiple atomic states at the same time are by no means trivial. Further, numerous atomic systems involve Rydberg series, which are associated with additional difficulties. In this work, we demonstrate how the challenges in the computations of Rydberg series can be handled in large-scale multiconfiguration Dirac–Hartree–Fock (MCDHF) and relativistic configuration interaction (RCI) calculations. By paying special attention to the construction of the radial orbital basis that builds the atomic state functions, transition data that are weakly sensitive to the choice of gauge can be obtained. Additionally, we show that the Babushkin gauge should not always be considered as the preferred gauge, and that, in the computations of transition data involving Rydberg series, the Coulomb gauge could be more appropriate for the analysis of astrophysical spectra. To illustrate the above, results from computations of transitions involving Rydberg series in the astrophysically important C IV and C III ions are presented and analyzed.

Large-scale ab initio calculations of the electronic contribution to the electric quadrupole hyperfine constant $B$ were performed for the $5s^{2}5p6s{}^{1,3}{P}_1^{\mathrm{o}}$ excited states of neutral tin. To probe the sensitivity of $B$ to different electron correlation effects, three sets of variational multiconfiguration Dirac-Hartree-Fock and relativistic configuration interaction calculations employing different strategies were carried out. In addition, a fourth set of calculations was based on the configuration interaction Dirac-Fock-Sturm theory. For the $5s^{2}5p6s{}^{1}P_1^{\mathrm{o}}$ state, the final value of $B/Q=703\left(50\right)$ MHz/b differs by $0.4\%$ from the one recently used by Yordanov et al. [ Commun. Phys. 3, 107 (2020)] to extract the nuclear quadrupole moments $Q$ for tin isotopes in the range ${}^{117-131}\mathrm{Sn}$ from collinear laser spectroscopy measurements. Efforts were made to provide a realistic theoretical uncertainty for the final $B/Q$ value of the $5s^{2}5p6s{}^{1}P_1^{\mathrm{o}}$ state based on statistical principles and on correlation with the electronic contribution to the magnetic dipole hyperfine constant $A$.

Accurate atomic data are essential for opacity calculations and for abundance analyses of the Sun and other stars. The aim of this work is to provide accurate and extensive results of energy levels and transition data for C i–iv. The Multiconfiguration Dirac–Hartree–Fock and relativistic configuration interaction methods were used in this work. To improve the quality of the wavefunctions and reduce the relative differences between length and velocity forms for transition data involving high Rydberg states, alternative computational strategies were employed by imposing restrictions on the electron substitutions when constructing the orbital basis for each atom and ion. Transition data, for example, weighted oscillator strengths and transition probabilities, are given for radiative electric dipole (E1) transitions involving levels up to 1s²2s²2p6s for C i, up to 1s²2s²7f for C ii, up to 1s²2s7f for C iii, and up to 1s²8g for C iv. Using the difference between the transition rates in length and velocity gauges as an internal validation, the average uncertainties of all presented E1 transitions are estimated to be 8.05 per cent, 7.20 per cent, 1.77 per cent, and 0.28 per cent, respectively, for C i–iv. Extensive comparisons with available experimental and theoretical results are performed and good agreement is observed for most of the transitions. In addition, the C i data were employed in a re-analysis of the solar carbon abundance. The new transition data give a line-by-line dispersion similar to the one obtained when using transition data that are typically used in stellar spectroscopic applications today.