QED radiative corrections to E1 transition amplitudes in heavy atoms

Atomic many-body theory has reached the level of precision where account of quantum electrodynamics (QED) radiative corrections is important in the determination of heavy atom properties. The radiative potential method is used to carry out a detailed study of QED corrections to electric dipole (E1) transition amplitudes in alkali-metal atoms Rb, Cs, and Fr, and alkali-metal-like ions Sr⁺, Ba⁺, and Ra⁺. The validity of the method is checked by comparing against the results of rigorous QED. We study the influence of the many-body effects core relaxation, polarization of the core by the E1 field, and valence-core correlations on the QED corrections. Several transitions are identified where the QED contributions exceed the deviation between atomic theory and experiment.