Harmonic-oscillator electric polarizability Created 2026-10-20 Updated 2026-11-05
A bound charge in a harmonic restoring potential has induced electric dipole moment . Completing the square proves this for every static field within the strictly harmonic model. First-order nondegenerate perturbation theory gives the same coefficient because the position operator connects the unperturbed ground state only to the first excited state. This exact response coefficient does not make its two-state wavefunction approximation exact.
The quoted expansion is nondegenerate perturbation theory for a known isolated eigenstate of a time-independent Hamiltonian. A useful small-mixing condition is for coupled states. First order is a diagonal expectation value; second order describes virtual mixing. A degenerate or nearly degenerate coupled subspace must first be treated by diagonalization there. Symmetry can eliminate terms, and convergence still needs checking. Ground-state second-order shifts are nonpositive because all denominators are negative.[ref]
Quantum Mechanics by Richard Fitzpatrick. Non-degenerate perturbation theory and its breakdown at coupled degeneracies
For the rotational Stark effect, , where is the polar angle to the field. The source calls it azimuthal, which is inconsistent with this coupling. Rotor states have parity , while is odd, so every first-order matrix element within one fixed- manifold vanishes. The degeneracy therefore causes no first-order splitting.
Only with the same contribute in second order. Using their energy differences and ,For this simplifies to the quadratic Stark shift of a polar linear rotor,For , only contributes, with squared angular matrix element and denominator :Here is the rotational energy constant, unlike the magnetic field in Question3.
The unperturbed line gives . The shifts are for and for . Subtracting the common lower-state shift gives transition shifts and . Their separation determines the dipole moment from a rotational Stark doublet:The unit is the debye. Using external and gives , consistent with weak-field perturbation theory. The two shifted frequencies are about and ; polarization selects or . The inferred value is a magnitude; these shifts do not determine the dipole's sign.[ref]
CODATA recommended values of the fundamental physical constants: 2022 by National Institute of Standards and Technology. Exact SI Planck constant
[ref]Triatomic Spectral Database by National Institute of Standards and Technology. Section5: debye conversion
Opposite-parity mixing produces quadratic rotor shifts and a polarization-dependent rotational doublet
. Source. Details. In the totally symmetric basis, the force constant matrix reduces toThe unperturbed eigenvalues are distinct within this symmetry block, so nondegenerate perturbation theory applies even though the full unperturbed matrix has degeneracies in different symmetry sectors. The first-order shifts are both . At second order the off-diagonal matrix element gives for the lower mode and for the upper one. ThereforeIn frequency form,The corresponding eigenvectors are and . As a check, the exact squared-frequency eigenvalues arewhose expansions reproduce the perturbation theory result. The newly lifted zero frequency scales as , so expanding as an ordinary Taylor series in would be inappropriate.
Use the ordered computational basis , with and . Write for the Pauli matrices, for the identity operator, , , and . As in the question, the Hamiltonian operators have angular frequency units, so the time-evolution operator is . The Heisenberg coupling matrix for two spins isConsequently the full Heisenberg model Hamiltonian operator and its proposed Ising coupling approximation are
For nondegenerate perturbation theory, choose as the unperturbed Hamiltonian operator andas the perturbation. Only and are coupled, and their unperturbed energy levels differ by . All first-order energy corrections vanish. The first-order eigenvectors and second-order energy corrections areThe states are exact eigenvectors throughout. Hence the weak coupling condition for two NMR spins isA large common Zeeman energy alone does not ensure this condition. Crossings involving the uncoupled parallel-spin states do not invalidate the argument: the relevant denominator is the separation of the two states connected by .
As an exact check, the middle matrix has eigenvaluesFor , labeling by the limiting computational basis states reproduces the shifts above. The quantum transition probability from to isThus unwanted exchange has a uniformly small amplitude when . If accumulated phases must also be approximated over a duration , neglecting the second-order shifts additionally requires , or those shifts must be retained in an improved effective Hamiltonian operator.
The same result is the secular approximation for scalar-coupled spins. In the interaction picture of the Zeeman energy terms,These terms average rapidly on the coupling timescale when , while survives.
For fixed nuclei and electronic environments, the individual NMR angular frequencies scale with the static magnetic field : schematically , where includes the gyromagnetic ratio and magnetic shielding. The NMR scalar coupling in angular frequency units is approximately independent of . Therefore a nonzero separation increases with magnetic field, improving the approximation. In particular, a fixed difference of chemical shifts gives a larger separation in hertz at higher magnetic field. If the two resonances remain exactly equal, increasing their common frequency does not suppress their exchange.
Weak coupling condition for two NMR spins 2026-10-24
For the two-spin Hamiltonian operator , juxtaposition of two Pauli matrices denotes their tensor product. Put . The exchange matrix element between and is , whereas their diagonal separation is . Nondegenerate perturbation theory therefore gives admixtures and second-order frequency shifts . Neglecting the exchange terms is justified to leading order when . A large common Zeeman energy is insufficient. To approximate accumulated phases by this leading-order Hamiltonian operator, one also needs over the observation time, or must include the second-order shifts.
For fixed nonidentical chemical shifts, increasing the static magnetic field increases in angular-frequency units while the NMR scalar coupling changes little. If remains exact, the approximation fails at every nonzero .
