Relativistic multireference many-body perturbation theory is employed to calculate the energy spectra, magnetic-dipole, and electric-quadrupole transition probabilities of the lowest ${}^3{P}_J$ fine-structure states of ions in the silicon isoelectronic sequence. Theoretical lifetimes of the ${}^3{P}_{1,2}$ states are evaluated and compared with recent experiments.

• Received 1 November 2000

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.63.042506