  We present a detailed study of the Flambaum-Ginges radiative potential method
which enables the accurate inclusion of quantum electrodynamics (QED) radiative
corrections in a simple manner in atoms, ions, and molecules over the range
10<=Z<=120, where Z is the nuclear charge. Calculations are performed for
binding energy shifts to the lowest valence s, p, and d waves over the series
of alkali atoms Na to E119. The high accuracy of the radiative potential method
is demonstrated by comparison with rigorous QED calculations in frozen atomic
potentials, with deviations on the level of 1%. The many-body effects of core
relaxation and second- and higher-order perturbation theory on the interaction
of the valence electron with the core are calculated. The inclusion of
many-body effects tends to increase the size of the shifts, with the
enhancement particularly significant for d waves; for K to E119, the
self-energy shifts for d waves are only an order of magnitude smaller than the
s-wave shifts. It is shown that account of many-body effects is essential for
an accurate description of the Lamb shift.

Atomic Physics