Triply excited symmetric rotor states: l distributions

We apply an accurate analytical ansatz to investigate the systematics of allowed terms and the distribution of one-electron angular momenta for highly correlated triply excited states in lithium or lithium-like ions. For low principal quantum numbers the overall symmetry characterized by the total spin, angular momentum and parity of the three electrons plays an important role for the distribution over l quantum numbers. For higher principal quantum numbers, the spatial repulsion dominates over symmetry constraints, and the distribution may be compared with a polarized single-electron description