Ytterbium in quantum gases and atomic clocks: van der Waals interactions and blackbody shifts

We evaluated the C_6 coefficients of Yb-Yb and Yb -alkali/group II van der Waals interactions with 2% uncertainty. The only existing results for such quantities are for the Yb-Yb dimer. Our value, C_6=1929(39) a.u., is in excellent agreement with the recent experimental determination of 1932(35) a.u. We have also developed a new approach for the calculation of the dynamic correction to the blackbody radiation shift. We have calculated this quantity for the Yb 6s^2 ^1S_0 - 6s6p ^3P_0 clock transition with 3.5% uncertainty. This reduces the fractional uncertainty due to the blackbody radiation shift in the Yb optical clock at 300 K to 10^{-18} level.