Empirical determination of intermediate-coupling amplitudes and transition rates from spectroscopic data

A simple general method is presented whereby measured spectroscopic energy-level data can be used to empirically construct the eigenvectors of intermediate coupling for an arbitrary configuration. These empirical eigenvectors can be used to elucidate the transition rates into, out of, and among the levels of the configuration by separating the effects of intermediate coupling from the radial transition moment. Predictive applications to the ${\mathit{np}}^{3}$ configurations of the N and P isoelectronic sequences are presented.