Walter R. Johnson

Professor Emeritus,
Theoretical Physics

Professor Johnson investigates relativistic and correlation effects in heavy atoms using relativistic many-body methods derived from Quantum Electrodynamics. These methods include many-body perturbation theory, the all-order coupled-cluster method, and configuration interaction. Applications are made to determine energies, transition rates, hyperfine constants, polarizabilities, and other properties of atoms. Particular attention is given to heavy atoms, such as cesium, thallium, and francium used in experimental studies of fundamental symmetry (P) and (T) violation.

Prof. Johnson is a past Chairperson of the Division of Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics of the American Physical Society. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, recipient of the Gordon Godfrey Fellowship from the University of New South Wales in 1993 and 2000, and recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt “Senior U.S. Scientist Award” in 1982, 1993, and 2002. He presently serves as a consultant to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and as a member of the Editorial Board of Physical Review A.

Selected Publications

“Two-photon E1M1 decay of 2 3P0 states in heavy heliumlike ions,” I.M. Savukov and W.R. Johnson, Phys. Rev. A66, 062507, 1-5 (2002).

“Status of Atomic PNC: Experiment/Theory,” W.R. Johnson, in Proceedings of the XVIII International Conference on Atomic Physics, editors, H.R. Sadeghpour, E.J. Heller, and D.E. Pritchard (World Scientific, Singapore, 2003).

“Energies, transition rates, and electric dipole moment enhancement factors for Ce IV and Pr V,” I.M. Savukov et al., Phys. Rev. A67, 042504, 1-5 (2003).

“Dramatic nondipole effects in low-energy photoionization: experimental and theoretical study of Xe 5s,” O. Hemmers et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 53002, 1-4 (2003).

Full Curriculum vitae (pdf)
Please contact physics@nd.edu if a html or other version is needed.