Allowed and forbidden transitions of helium-like ions

A relativistic generalization of the random phase approximation is used to study the response of helium-like ions to electromagnetic perturbations. The spectrum of the response function in this relativistic theory contains allowed and forbidden transitions. The computed E1(2 1,3 P 1 -1 1 S 0 ), M1(2 3 S 1 -1 1 S 0 ) and M2(2 3 P 2 -1 1 S 0 ) transition rates agree well with those obtained by refined calculations and with experiment. Accurate values are also obtained for the excitation energies of ions with large nuclear charges, where relativistic effects are of major importance.