Current electric quadrupole moments of atoms and nuclei

It is shown that current electric multipoles exist. Their field is electrostatic and it is unrelated to the existence of a net electric charge. At long range, it is the same as the field of the corresponding charge electric multipoles. Current electric multipoles arise during the motion of magnetic multipoles. An orbital motion of magnetic dipoles, a precession of a current-carrying loop, and the motion of magnetic quadrupoles all lead to current electric quadrupole moments. Expressions for the current electric quadrupole moments of atoms and nuclei are derived.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 7, pp. 53–58, July, 1991.The author wishes to thank S. A. Kuten' and V. I. Rapoport for useful comments offered during the writing of this paper and for a discussion of the results.