Simplified partial wave expansion of the Lamb shift

Abstract

A method for calculating the self energy part of the Lamb shift is revisited. When the electron propagator in an external field is represented as an expansion in partial waves, the original method converges relatively slowly, requiring the calculation of dozens of partial waves. Here we show an improved method in which accurate results can be obtained using a much smaller number of partial waves. The method is illustrated for the ground states of hydrogenlike and lithiumlike boron, and the possibility of high accuracy calculations on lower Z hydrogenic ions is discussed.