  We investigate the role of electron correlation effects in the electric
dipole polarizabilities of the ground states of the alkaline earth and
ytterbium atoms by employing the relativistic coupled-cluster (RCC) theory.
These effects are incorporated via the residual Coulomb interaction to all
orders in the RCC singles and doubles approximation. The perturbed
wavefunctions used in the calculations of the polarizabilities are obtained by
directly solving the first order perturbed RCC equations, thereby avoiding the
sum-over-states approach. Our results are compared with other calculations and
available experimental data.
