Eur. Phys. J. D 42, 1-10 (2007)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2006-00269-9

Quadruply excited beryllium-like atoms – a semiclassical model

Institute of Physics, P.O. Box 57, 11000 Belgrade, Serbia

Corresponding author: ^a simonovic@phy.bg.ac.yu

Received: 3 October 2006
Revised: 31 October 2006
Published online: 13 December 2006

Abstract

The semiclassical spectrum of quadruply highly excited four-electron atomic systems has been calculated for the plane model of equivalent electrons. The energy of the system consists of rotational and vibrational modes within the circular skeleton orbit approximation, as used in a previous calculation for the triply excited three-electron systems. The full dynamical analysis is carried out within the Hamiltonian theory, accounting for the inertial effects and the complete coupling between different degrees of freedom. Here we present numerical results for energy spectrum of the beryllium atom. The lifetimes of the semiclassical states are estimated via the corresponding Lyapunov exponents. The vibrational modes relative contribution to the energy levels rises with the degree of the Coulombic excitation.