The direct 5p photoionization of atomic Lu has been investigated by photoel
ectron spectroscopy in combination with monochromatized synchrotron radiati
on. Binding energies of the 5p(-1) multiplet states have been determined fr
om the photoelectron spectra. For the interpretation of the 5p(-1) multiple
t structure, we performed Hartree-Fock calculations, where configuration in
teraction was taken into account. The main result is that the splitting of
the 5p(-1) multiplet structure is dominated by the spin-orbit interaction.