On the ls²4d Fine Structures of B III and Ne VIII

The fine structure of lithium-like ls²4d states in the literature behaves irregularly as a function of Z. The fine structures of the B III and Ne VIII fall well below the isoelectronic curve. The term energies of these two systems in the data tables also give worse agreement with the theoretical prediction. In this work, we show that the reason for this unusual situation is caused by a misidentification in the original spectra. When the correct identifications are made, the fine structures of both systems fall on the isoelectronic curve and the agreement between theory and experiment is excellent .