Relativistic Configuration-Interaction and Perturbation Theory Calculations for Heavy Atoms
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This is a good paper on atomic structure of the lanthanides and the actinides. The calculations are challenging due to the large number of electrons. I believe the MS should be published with minor corrections.
I have only some few remarks:
• Page 2, last paragraph: The nine factors: in the MS the technique to
find them is described in the paper and it seems fair, but still one
can ask how arbitrary are the initial values of these factors?
The optimization procedure of the paremeters seems fair and is explained
clearly.
• Page 3, third paragraph: is this additional scaling factor (to take into account
the actual number of valence electrons) arbitrary? Is this factor additional
to the other nine previous factors?
• Apparently the acronymous for RCI was not introduced, if this is the case, please do so. It appears first in 2.4 section head matter. The acronimous pRCI is introduced in page 6, first paragraph, line 3 and yet RCI is not.
• Page 6, first paragraph, after Fig. 1 in line 5th, there is a missing space
in "... detail. Table1 shows..."
• A space is missing again in the last line of page 7, in "Table2"
• Page 9, first paragraph after Table 2, 8th line is in bold letters and there is a typo: "... while monitoring, for example, the g-factor dur9ing optimization..."
• I can't find the definition of the "IS" acronimous. Please define it when
introducing it.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
thank you very much for the review, please find the responses to your comments in the attached file
Authors
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
This paper presents the theoretical framework of CI-MBPT and its applications and results. The theories and results sound and useful for our community.
However, main concern is that bulk of contents have already been published by the authors, and the original result for this paper, if any, is quite unclear in the present manuscript.
e.g. Table 3 looks almost identical with Table 11 published in Ref [42] by the author.
I recommend substantial rework or resubmit the paper as review.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
thank you very much for your valuable comments. The responses are in the attached file,
The authors
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript of Savukov et al. presents atomic structure calculations for several heavy atoms and ions. The calculations provide energies, lifetimes, g-factors, electric dipole moments, and hyperfine structure constants. A variety of theoretical methods are used, as well as different atomic structure models. Each approach is analysed through comparison with available experimental data.
The theoretical framework for the various calculations is well set out, in particular the hybrid CI-MBPT approach which defines groups of core and valence electrons, and then combines configuration interaction for valence-valence interactions, and many-body perturbation theory for valence-core interactions.
The manuscript is well written, and the calculations are of a high quality. On this basis, I feel that the manuscript can be published in Atoms. I only have some minor optional points for the authors to address:
1. In the introduction, the semi-relativistic nature of codes such as the popular Cowan code. It is probably worth mentioning at this point that a relativistic analogue of Cowan’s code does exist (for example, see the description of the RATS code in Fontes et al., J. Phys. B 48 144014 (2014)).
2. Although its meaning is obvious, the acronym RCI does not appear to be defined anywhere.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
thank you very much for your comments, the responses are attached
The authors
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
This paper contains useful information about progress in theoretical calculations of highly complex atoms and ions. The author's response is sufficient to warrant publication of the paper in Atoms.
Author Response
Thank you!
