Valence calculations of lanthanide anion binding energies: a comprehensive study

We have applied a methodology of universal $jls$ restrictions on the $4f^n$ subgroup of relativistic configuration-interaction calculations of progressively more complex lanthanide anions\footnote{S. M. O'Malley and D. R. Beck, Phys. Rev. A \textbf{77}, 012505 (2008).}$^{,}$\footnote{S. M. O'Malley and D. R. Beck, Phys. Rev. A \textbf{78}, 012510 (2008).}$^{,}$\footnote{S. M. O'Malley and D. R. Beck, Phys. Rev. A, in press.}. Our completed study of the row predicts bound $6p$ attachments to all lanthanide ground state configurations except Yb, additional $6p$ attachments to excited opposite parity configurations in Tb and Lu, and $6s$ attachments to excited open-$6s$ thresholds in La, Ce, Pr, and Gd. In total we predict more than 100 bound states for the lanthanide anions, and we hope this comprehensive study encourages further experimental\footnote{e.g. V. T. Davis \textit{et al.}, Nucl. Instrum. Methods Phys. Res. B \textbf{241}, 118 (2005).}$^{,}$\footnote{e.g. C. W. Walter \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. A \textbf{76}, 052702 (2007).} interest in these anions. Such measurements will be useful in ``fine tuning'' these \textit{ab initio} binding energies to account for missing core-valence correlation and the approximations that were necessary in these complex calculations.