ABSTRACT:On the basis of numerical ab initio, delta and multiconfiguration BreitDirac-Fock (⌬BDF and MCBDF) computations, we have investigated the dependence of electron "cross relaxation" on the single relaxation contributions in double-core ionization energies and spin-orbit splitting of atoms from Ar to Ba, excluding transition elements. The cross-relaxation variation with Z was fitted to a quadratic function of the geometric average of the single relaxation contributions. For the family of atoms AlOCl, it was found that the splitting of the levels is not a straight measure of 2p spin-orbit coupling. The families of "light" atoms ArOCa and CuOSr yielded together a set of best-fit coefficients, while the family of heavier atoms AgOBa yielded another set. The best-fit functions were used to predict double-core ionization energies from single ionization data and from Koopmans' values for atoms from Ar to Ba. For molecules a semiempirical expression is proposed.