Spectrum of Neutral Helium in Strong Magnetic Fields

Abstract

We present extensive and accurate calculations for the excited state spectrum of spin-polarized neutral helium in a range of magnetic field strengths up to $10^{12}$ G. Of considerable interest to models of magnetic white dwarf stellar atmospheres, we also present results for the dipole strengths of the low lying transitions among these states. Our methods rely on a systematically saturated basis set approach to solving the Hartree--Fock self-consistent field equations, combined with an ``exact'' stochastic method to estimate the residual basis set truncation error and electron correlation effects. We also discuss the applicability of the adiabatic approximation to strongly magnetized multi-electron atoms.