New sum rules for Wigner 3jm symbols: application to expectation values of hydrogenic ions

Abstract

We present new sum rules for $3jm$ coefficients, which involve, in addition to the usual weighting factor $(2j + 1)$ where $j$ is an angular momentum, the quantity $[j(j + 1)]^k$ with $k \ge 1$. The sum rules appear for instance in the statistical modeling of rotational spectra within the theory of moments, and enable one to deduce the expectation values of $r^k$ (used in the theory of Stark effect for hydrogenic ions) in parabolic coordinates from the expectation values of $r^k$ in spherical coordinates.