Relativistic many-body calculations of electric-dipole matrix elements, lifetimes, and polarizabilities in rubidium

Electric-dipole matrix elements for ns-n^'p, nd-n^'p, and 6d-4f transitions in Rb are calculated using a relativistic all-order method. A third-order calculation is also carried out for these matrix elements to evaluate the importance of the high-order many-body perturbation theory contributions. The all-order matrix elements are used to evaluate lifetimes of ns and np levels with $n=6,7,8$ and nd levels with $n=4,5,6$ for comparison with experiment and to provide benchmark values for these lifetimes. The dynamic polarizabilities are calculated for ns states of rubidium. The resulting lifetime and polarizability values are compared with available theory and experiment.