We consider the evaluation of the Araki-Sucher correction for arbitrary many-electron atomic and molecular systems. This contribution appears in the leading-order quantum electrodynamics corrections to the energy of a bound state. The conventional one-electron basis set of Gaussian-type orbitals is adopted; this leads to two-electron matrix elements which are evaluated with the help of the generalized McMurchie-Davidson scheme. We also consider the convergence of the results towards the complete basis set. A rigorous analytic result for the convergence rate is obtained and verified by comparing with independent numerical values for the helium atom. Finally, we present a selection of numerical examples and compare our results with the available reference data for small systems. In contrast with other methods used for the evaluation of the Araki-Sucher correction, our method is not restricted to few-electron atoms or molecules. This is illustrated by calculations for several many-electron atoms and molecules.

• Received 6 October 2017

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.96.052510