The polarization phenomena of spherical molecules

The calculation of the polarizabilities of spherical molecules is discussed in the light of the average excitation energy approximation to perturbation theory. It is shown that whilst information about the energy in external fields can always be obtained from polarization phenomena, some information about the unperturbed wave function also can be obtained from magnetic susceptibility and Cotton–Mouton effect measurements. In the case of argon such information was found to agree with the results of self-consistent-field calculations. Predictions of the Cotton–Mouton constants of krypton and xenon are made.