Relativistic effects in two valence electron atoms and ions and the search for variation of the fine structure constant

Abstract

We perform accurate calculations of the dependence of transition frequencies in two valence electron atoms and ions on a variation of the fine structure constant, alpha. The relativistic Hartree-Fock method is used with many-body perturbation theory and configuration interaction methods to calculate transition frequencies. The results are to be used in atomic-clock-type laboratory experiments designed to test whether alpha varies in time.