Effects of electronic correlation on x-ray absorption and dichroic spectra at L2,3 edge

We present a new theoretical approach to describe x-ray absorption and magnetic circular dichroism spectra in the presence of electron-electron correlation. Our approach provides an unified picture to include correlations in both charged and neutral excitations, namely in direct/inversion photoemission where electrons are removed/added, and photoabsorption where electrons are promoted from core levels to empty states. We apply this approach to the prototypical case of the L2,3 edge of 3d transition metals and we show that the inclusion of many-body effects in the core level excitations is essential to reproduce, together with satellite structures in core level photoemission, the observed asymmetric lineshapes in x-ray absorption and dichroic spectra.