Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-a-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/paper-1/a3/c/i/solution
Past exam of the chemistry A course of the University of Cambridge 2023 Paper 1 A3 c i Solution by
Codex 0 2026-10-20
Because , the terms cancel between the initial and final states. The two positive-shift branches are consequentlyThe 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.
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