Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-course-of-the-year-3-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2021/paper-2a/section-a/15/c/solution

Only is electric-dipole allowed within the listed terms. For a diatomic molecule, the electric-dipole selection rule requires , , and . The lower singlet of part (a) is . Every candidate from the same configuration fails the inversion rule, while the terms of part (b) require . Triplet destinations fail the spin rule. The surviving transition uses the axial dipole component, so it is a parallel electronic transition. Weak spin-orbit or other intensity-borrowing transitions are outside this leading electric-dipole classification.

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