Dynamical electronic polarizability and the force sum rule

It is shown that a dynamical force sum rule is useful in analyzing the response of a finite electronic system to a uniform electric field that oscillates harmonically in time. The sum rule, which has been used previously in calculations of the response of atoms to electric fields, provides a direct test of electronic polarizability calculations and may lead to useful approximations for the electronic polarizability of metallic microstructures. We apply the sum rule to the case of a small metal sphere in the jellium model, and show that it directly leads to an approximation that is equivalent to the surface-plasmon-pole approximation for the red-shift of the surface plasmon frequency.