Fine and hyperfine structure in three low-lying 3Σ+ states of molecular hydrogen

The fine structure constant (electron spin-spin coupling) and the hyperfine structure parameters (electron-nuclear spin coupling, including spin-rotation and electron-nuclear quadrupole coupling) in the low-lying triplet states b³Σ⁺ _u, a³Σ⁺ _g and e³Σ⁺ _u of molecular hydrogen and deuterium are calculated using a recently developed technique with full configuration interaction and multiconfiguration self-consistent field wave functions. The second-order spin-orbit coupling contribution to the ³Σ⁺ states splitting is negligible, and the calculations therefore provide a good estimate of the zero-field splitting based only on the electron spin-spin coupling values. For the bound a³Σ⁺ _g state a negligible zero-field splitting is found, in qualitative agreement with the e-a spectrum. The zero-field splitting parameter is considerable for the repulsive b³Σ⁺ _u state (?1 cm^?1) and of intermediate size for the bound e³Σ⁺ _u state. The isotropic hyperfine coupling constant is very large not only for the valence b³Σ⁺ _u state (1580 MHz) but also for the Rydberg a and e triplet states (?1400 MHz). The quadrupole coupling constants for the deuterium isotopes are negligible (0.04–0.07 MHz) for all studied triplet states. The electric dipole activity of the spin sublevels in the triplet-singlet transitions to the ground state is estimated by means of the quadratic response technique.