Accurate relativistic many-body calculations of van der Waals coefficients C_8 and C_10 for alkali-metal dimers

Abstract

We consider long-range interactions between two alkali-metal atoms in their respective ground states. We extend the previous relativistic many-body calculations of C_6 dispersion coefficients [Phys.Rev. Lett. {\bf 82}, 3589 (1999)] to higher-multipole coefficients C_8 and C_10. A special attention is paid to usually omitted contribution of core-excited states. We calculate this contribution within relativistic random-phase approximation and demonstrate that for heavy atoms core excitations contribute as much as 10% to the dispersion coefficients. We tabulate results for both homonuclear and heteronuclear dimers and estimate theoretical uncertainties. The estimated uncertainties for C_8 coefficients range from 0.5% for Li_2 to 4% for Cs_2.