Two-photon decay of K-shell vacancy states in heavy atoms

Two-photon decay has been extensively studied in atomic, nuclear and particle physics since the 1930s when the problem of stability of the 2s state of the hydrogen atom emerged. Since then, many theoretical and experimental investigations have been made on hydrogen and one-electron (H-like) ions and on helium and two-electron (He-like) ions. The work on two-photon decay in many-electron systems involving inner shells started about 30 years ago and, in the meantime, two-photon decay of the K-shell vacancy state has been the subject of many theoretical and experimental studies. Experimental results have been obtained for 2 s → 1 s and higher-state electron → 1 s two-photon transitions in molybdenum, and for 2s → 1s, 3s → 1s, 3d → 1s and 4sd → 1s two-photon transitions in silver, xenon, hafnium and mercury. Nonrelativistic and relativistic calculations of the processes have been made. The relativistic calculations for transitions in molybdenum, silver and xenon atoms are in a reasonable agreement with the experimental results, but some problems remain to be solved. A review of investigations of two-photon transitions in atomic systems is presented.