Two-loop self-energy contribution to the Lamb shift in H-like ions

The two-loop self-energy correction is evaluated to all orders in $Z\alpha$ for the ground-state Lamb shift of H-like ions with $Z⩾10$, where $Z$ is the nuclear charge number and $\alpha$ is the fine-structure constant. The results obtained are compared with the analytical values for the $Z\alpha$-expansion coefficients. An extrapolation of the all-order numerical results to $Z=1$ is presented and implications of our calculation for the hydrogen Lamb shift are discussed.

Figure 1

The two-loop self-energy correction evaluated to all orders in $Z\alpha$ (dots) together with the contribution of all known terms of the $Z\alpha$ expansion (dashed line), in terms of $F\left(Z\alpha \right)$. The cross indicates the analytical value of this correction at $Z=0$.

Figure 2

Higher-order remainder $G^{\mathrm{h.o.}}\left(Z\alpha \right)$ defined by Eq. (2).