LARGE-SCALE MULTICONFIGURATION HARTREE-FOCK AND CONFIGURATION-INTERACTION CALCULATIONS OF THE TRANSITION-PROBABILITY AND HYPERFINE STRUCTURES IN THE SODIUM RESONANCE TRANSITION

Results from large-scale multiconfiguration Hartree-Fock (MCHF): and c onfiguration-interaction (CI) calculations of the transition probabili ty and hyperfine structures in the sodium 3s S-2-3p P-2 resonance tran sition are presented. In the calculations the orbital sets of the init ial and final state wave functions were not restricted to be the same, but were optimized independently. The evaluation of the transition ma trix elements was done using a technique where the two orbital sets ar e transformed so as to become biorthonormal, in which case standard Ra cah algebra can be used. Three-particle effects were taken into accoun t in the CI calculations and were found to be important for the hyperf ine structures, but less important for the transition probability. The calculated transition probability is in perfect agreement with the mo st recent experimental values, thus resolving the long-standing disagr eement between theory and experiment. Also the 3s S-2(1/2) and 3p P-2( 1/2,3/2) hyperfine interaction constants are in very good agreement wi th available experimental values.