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Interatomic potentials, electric properties, and spectroscopy of the ground and excited states of the Rb_2 molecule: Ab initio calculations and effect of a non-resonant field

We formulate the theory for a diatomic molecule in a spatially degenerate electronic state interacting with a non-resonant laser field and investigate its rovibrational structure in the presence of the field. We report on \textit{ab initio} calculations employing the double electron attachment intermediate Hamiltonian Fock space coupled cluster method restricted to single and double excitations for all electronic states of the Rb$_2$ molecule up to $5s+5d$ dissociation limit of about 26.000$\,$cm$^{-1}$. In order to correctly predict the spectroscopic behavior of Rb$_2$, we have also calculated the electric transition dipole moments, non-adiabatic coupling and spin-orbit coupling matrix elements, and static dipole polarizabilities, using the multireference configuration interaction method. When a molecule is exposed to strong non-resonant light, its rovibrational levels get hybridized. We study the spectroscopic signatures of this effect for transitions between the X$^1Σ_g^+$ electronic ground state and the A$^1Σ_u^+$ and b$^3Π_u$ excited state manifold. The latter is characterized by strong perturbations due to the spin-orbit interaction. We find that for non-resonant field strengths of the order $10^9$W/cm$^2$, the spin-orbit interaction and coupling to the non-resonant field become comparable. The non-resonant field can then be used to control the singlet-triplet character of a rovibrational level.