Calculation of the One- and Two-Loop Lamb Shift for Arbitrary Excited Hydrogenic States

Abstract
General expressions for quantum electrodynamic corrections to the one-loop self-energy [of order alpha(Zalpha)6] and for the two-loop Lamb shift [of order alpha2(Zalpha)6] are derived. The latter includes all diagrams with closed fermion loops. The general results are valid for arbitrary excited non-S hydrogenic states and for the normalized Lamb shift difference of states, defined as Delta N = n3deltaE(nS) - delta E(1S). We present numerical results for one-loop and two-loop corrections for excited S, P, and D states. In particular, the normalized Lamb shift difference of states is calculated with an uncertainty of order 0.1 kHz.
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