Calculation of the Magnetic Moment of Atomic Fluorine

The atomic gJ factors for the two levels composing the lowest term of atomic fluorine have been calculated utilizing the theory of Kambe and Van Vleck and wave functions resulting from Hartree-Fock treatments of varying accuracy. For the high-accuracy wave functions, the results of our calculation are in exact agreement with the measured ${{g}J({F}¹⁹; ²P3/2)}{{g}J({H}¹; ²S1/2)}=2/3{-}(497±{}1)×{}{10}^{{-}6}$, to within the experimental error. The contribution to ${g}J({F}¹⁹; ²P3/2)arising from the Breit interaction is found to amount to 49×{10}^{{-}6}$. This sizeable contribution, and the excellent agreement obtained, substantiate the validity of the theory and, in particular, of the Breit interaction to the order of ${{α}}²$. For the upper level, the value ${g}J({F}¹⁹; ²P1/2)=2/3{-}(1072±{}2)×{}{10}^{{-}6}$ is obtained. For this, no experimental test of adequate sensitivity has been made.