A relativistic unitary coupled-cluster study of electric quadrupole moment and magnetic dipole hyperfine constants of ^{199}Hg^{+}

Abstract

Searching for an accurate optical clock which can serve as a better time standard than the present day atomic clock is highly demanding from several areas of science and technology. Several attempts have been made to built more accurate clocks with different ion species. In this article we discuss the electric quadrupole and hyperfine shifts in the $5d^{9}6s^{2} ^{2}D_{5/2}(F=0,m_{F}=0)\leftrightarrow5d^{10}6s ^{2}S_{1/2}(F=2,m_{F}=0)$ clock transition in $ ^{199}Hg^{+}$, one of the most promising candidates for next generation optical clocks. We have applied Fock-space unitary coupled-cluster (FSUCC) theory to study the electric quadrupole moment of the $5d^{9}6s^{2} ^{2}D_{5/2}$ state and magnetic dipole hyperfine constants of $5d^{9}6s^{2} ^{2}D_{3/2,5/2}$ and $5d^{10}6s^{1} ^{2}S_{1/2}$ states respectively of $ ^{199}Hg^{+}$. We have also compared our results with available data. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time a variant of coupled-cluster (CC) theories has been applied to study these kinds of properties of $Hg^{+}$and is the most accurate estimate of these quantities to date.