Relativistic Effects on Photoabsorption Cross Sections of Highly Charged Ions

Abstract: The study of highly charged ions offers a unique platform for probing the breakdown of non-relativistic theory under the influence of extreme electromagnetic environments. Here, we investigate the photoabsorption of highly charged ions within the dipole approximation using both the time-dependent Schrödinger equation (TDSE) and the time-dependent Dirac equation (TDDE), modelling the external field as an instantaneous broadband excitation. Nonrelativistic scaling relations with respect to the nuclear charge are utilized as a diagnostic tool to systematically identify and quantify relativistic contributions. Within the purely nonrelativistic TDSE framework, these scaling relations hold exactly, allowing the absorption spectra of arbitrary highly charged ions to be inferred directly from a neutral hydrogenic reference. However, as the nuclear charge increases, relativistic effects become dominant through a sizeable blue shift in the absorption cross section, due to the relativistic enhancement of the binding energy. We further evaluate semi-relativistic TDSE approximations by direct comparison with full TDDE simulations, assessing their predictive power and establishing the regimes where a full Dirac treatment is indispensable for quantitative accuracy.