Spectral Properties of Nonhydrogenic Atoms in Weak External Fields

Abstract
We study how the ionic core in a nonhydrogenic atom modifies the dynamics of a Rydberg electron in the presence of a weak static external field. We show that such a system is neither regular nor chaotic: its energy levels display unusual statistical properties, intermediate between the standard Poisson and random matrix ones. The ionic core acts as a scatterer whose size is comparable to the de Broglie wavelength of the electron, inducing specific quantum effects.
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