Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-chemistry-course-of-the-year-3-of-the-natural-sciences-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2022/paper-2a/section-b/21/a/iii/solution

A spectral component shifts by the difference between its upper- and lower-level Stark shifts. With , and , the supplied energy formula gives
For radiation polarized parallel to the static field, , so
Thus the assigned feature has no first-order splitting, whereas the features acquire symmetrically arranged magnetic-sublevel components with spacings proportional to . With perpendicular radiation, gives the corresponding different allowed pattern. Recording field-dependent spectra with specified polarization would test both the J values and the K sequence; using an individual level's shift alone would not predict the observed line positions. Higher-order shifts of the nominally unsplit feature are outside this first-order test.

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