Dispersive plasma-satellites of a dipole-forbidden transition and the rotating field model

A clear distinction is made between (a) the coupled transitions of optical photons and transverse plasmons in microwave experiments and (b) the dispersive plasma-satellites in a cable-pulsed, double-cathode glow discharge. The former involve a radiation-damped dipole interaction and are not necessarily accompanied by a central component. The latter conserve the sum of the angular momentum projections of spin-one plasmons and atoms in the sense that the ensemble-averaged electron-induced absorption probability at the position of the forbidden component is split into three components, separated by the plasma frequency ω_p. The far and near σ-satellites change the projection quantum number by one unit, while the central π-component does not, because of rotationally transforming the Schrödinger equation at angular velocities of ±ω_p in the atomic (x, y)-plane. The theory is compared with measured optical spectra.