Lamb shift of a tightly bound electron II. Calculation for the K -electron in mercury

Abstract

The Lamb shift of a K-electron in mercury is calculated using the method described in the preceding paper. It is found to be 38 Ry. Together with results of theoretical calculations of all other effects of order mc$^{2}$ and $\alpha $mc$^{2}$, this gives a theoretical binding energy of -6099 Ry, which may be compared with the experimental value of -6107$\cdot $7 $\pm $ 0$\cdot $6 Ry for the K-absorption edge. Theoretical contributions of order $\alpha ^{2}$mc$^{2}$ ($\alpha ^{2}$mc$^{2}$ = 2 Ry) are discussed, but not evaluated in this paper.