Nuclear Moments and Intermediate Coupling

Abstract

The effect of intermediate coupling on the calculation of the nuclear moments of the rare earths from analyses of hyperfine structure is examined. It is shown that the observed hyperfine splittings may be satisfactorily interpreted as due to the interaction of the spin and orbital moments of 4f electrons with the nuclear magnetic and electric quadrupole moments. The interaction of the electron‐spin moments with the nuclear magnetic moment is shown to be very sensitive to the form of the coupling. The consistency of the measurements of nuclear moments by atomic‐beam and paramagnetic resonances is discussed. Instead of using the more usual spin‐Hamiltonian formalism, the matrix elements of the interactions are calculated explicitly in terms of the actual quantum numbers of the states involved. Calculations are presented for Pr¹⁴¹ and Ho¹⁶⁵.