Relativistic autoionisation of bound states of negative ions: Be-

Negative ions have bound excited states which decay via relativistic autoionisation. An application of a state-specific theory of electron correlation and relativistic effects in the Breit-Pauli approximation to the Be - 1s 2 2s2p 2 4 P metastable state has yielded for the lifetimes of its three J levels: J= 5 / 2 : 1.0*10 -6 s, J= 3 / 2 : 2.0*10 -3 s, J= 1 / 2 : 8.0*10 -8 s. The only other complete information on such decay dynamics is based on the experimental measurements of the He - 4 P o levels. The large dispersion among the J levels is due to the effects of final-state correlation, of cancellation and of non-orthonormality.