Interaction Effects on Lifetimes of Atomic Excitations

The apparent lifetime of an excited atom in a p state is investigated when another atom, in an s ground state, is present. The dependence of the lifetime on the distance RAB between the two atoms is obtained. It is found that the results for a p0 state differ somewhat from those for the p±1 states. (The axis of quantization is taken as the line joining the two atoms.)