Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/paper-1/a3/c/i/solution

Because , the terms cancel between the initial and final states. The two positive-shift branches are consequently
The branch gives shifts , as for the diatomic. The branch fills in a series spaced by , so the combined nonzero series is .
There is a boundary qualification to the abbreviated rules printed in the question: for an ordinary symmetric polarizability tensor, has zero strength when . Thus does not produce a line; the first transition can start at and has shift . This follows from the rank-two angular-momentum coupling: the all-zero-projection coupling for and vanishes because is odd. If one applies only the printed inequalities without this matrix-element restriction, is a formal position, but its intensity is zero.
The lower panel of the figure in part (a)(ii) marks the two branches and their overlaps. The useful spacing is , not the diatomic value .

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