We derive the relativistic formulas for the van der Waals coefficients of Yb--alkali-metal dimers that correlate to ground and excited separated-atom limits. We calculate
C6 and
C8 coefficients of particular experimental interest. We also derive a semiempirical formula that expresses the
C8 coefficient of heteronuclear
A+B dimers in terms of the
C6 and
C8 coefficients of homonuclear dimers and the static dipole and quadrupole polarizabilities of the atomic states
A and
B. We report results of calculation of the
C6 coefficients for the Yb-Rb
3P1o+5s2S1/2 and
1S0+5p2P1/2o dimers, and the
C8 coefficients for the Yb-Li
1S0+2s2S1/2 and Yb-Rb
1S0+5s2S1/2 dimers. Uncertainties are estimated for all predicted properties.
The van der Waals coefficients,
C6,C8, and
C10 for the alkali-metal (Li, Na, K, and Rb) and alkaline-earth-metal (Be, Mg, Ca, and Sr) atoms are estimated by a combination of ab initio and semiempirical methods. Polarizabilities and atom-wall coefficients are given as a diagnostic check, and the lowest order nonadiabatic dispersion coefficient,
D8 and the three-body coefficient,
C9 are also presented. The dispersion coefficients are in agreement with the available relativistic many-body perturbation theory calculations. The contribution from the core was included by using constrained sum rules involving the core polarizability and Hartree-Fock expectation values to estimate the f-value distribution.
Knowledge of the long-range interaction between atoms and molecules is of fundamental importance for low-energy and low-temperature collisions. The electronic interaction between the charge distributions of two ground-state alkali-metal atoms can be expanded in inverse powers of R, the internuclear distance. The coefficients
C6,
C8, and
C10 of, respectively, the ${\mathit{R}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}6}$, ${\mathit{R}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}8}$, and ${\mathit{R}}^{\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}10}$ terms are calculated by integrating the products of the dynamic electric multipole polarizabilities of the individual atoms at imaginary frequencies, which are in turn obtained by solving two coupled inhomogeneous differential equations. Precise one-electron model potentials are developed to represent the motion of the valence electron in the field of the closed alkali-metal positive-ion core. The numerical results for the static multipole polarizabilities for the alkali-metal atoms and the coefficients
C6,
C8, and
C10 for homonuclear and heteronuclear alkali-metal diatoms are compared with other calculations.
Relativistic many-body calculations of van der Waals coefficients
C6 for dimers correlating to two ground-state alkaline-earth-metal atoms at large internuclear separations are reported. The following values and uncertainties were determined:
C6=214(3) for Be, 627(12) for Mg, 2221(15) for Ca, 3170(196) for Sr, and 5160(74) for Ba in atomic units.
We study the van der Waals interaction between Rydberg alkali-metal atoms with fine structure (
n2Lj; $L\ensuremath{\le}2$) and heteronuclear alkali-metal dimers in the ground rovibrational state ($X^{1}\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Sigma}}^{+}$;
v=0,J=0). We compute the associated
C6 dispersion coefficients of atom-molecule pairs involving
133Cs and
85Rb atoms interacting with KRb, LiCs, LiRb, and RbCs molecules. The obtained dispersion coefficients can be accurately fitted to a state-dependent polynomial
O(n7) over the range of principal quantum numbers $40\ensuremath{\le}n\ensuremath{\le}150$. For all atom-molecule pairs considered, Rydberg states
n2Sj and
n2Pj result in attractive
1/R6 potentials. In contrast,
n2Dj states can give rise to repulsive potentials for specific atom-molecule pairs. The interaction energy at the LeRoy distance approximately scales as ${n}^{\ensuremath{-}5}$ for
n>40. For intermediate values of $n\ensuremath{\lesssim}40$, both repulsive and attractive interaction energies of the order of 10--$1000\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\ensuremath{\mu}\mathrm{K}$ can be achieved with specific atomic and molecular species. The accuracy of the reported
C6 coefficients is limited by the quality of the atomic quantum defects, with relative errors $\mathrm{\ensuremath{\Delta}}{C}_{6}/{C}_{6}$ estimated to be no greater than 1% on average.
We have studied the long-range interaction potentials of the heteronuclear alkali-metal-atom dimers in the case when one of the atoms is in the first excited state (
nAP) and the other is in the ground state (
nBS). The presentation of the general expressions for the interaction energies in the Hund's case (c) is followed by the calculation of the corresponding
C6 constants for all heteronuclear alkali-metal-atom pairs. In the case of heavier perturbers (Rb and Cs) the
C6 constants are found to be significantly influenced by the perturber's fine structure. The van der Waals interaction in the K-Rb system is exceptionally strong resulting in
C6 constants considerably larger than in all other alkali-metal-atom heteronuclear systems. The intermediate-coupling region (ICR) is defined as the region of internuclear separation R where the interaction energy is of the order of the atomic spin-orbit splitting, while the exchange energy is still negligible. Analysis of the general form of the energy matrices in the ICR shows that the homonuclear alkali-metal-atom dimers can be treated as a special case. In the large-R limit, the ICR results reduce to those obtained in Hund's case (c). As an example, we have calculated the ICR interaction potentials of the K-Rb system, taking into account only the leading dipole-dipole interaction. Finally we have discussed the construction of the absorption coefficient in the wings of the resonance lines, both in the impact and in the quasistatic approximation.