Relativistic autoionisation of bound states of negative ions: Be-

Abstract
Negative ions have bound excited states which decay via relativistic autoionisation. An application of a state-specific theory of electron correlation and relativistic effects in the Breit-Pauli approximation to the Be- 1s22s2p2 4P metastable state has yielded for the lifetimes of its three J levels: J=5/2: 1.0*10-6 s, J=3/2: 2.0*10-3 s, J=1/2: 8.0*10-8 s. The only other complete information on such decay dynamics is based on the experimental measurements of the He- 4Po levels. The large dispersion among the J levels is due to the effects of final-state correlation, of cancellation and of non-orthonormality.