On the determination of the quadrupole moment of oxygen from self-broadened line widths in the microwave spectrum

Abstract

The large discrepancy between the value 0·4 D Å measured by Buckingham for the quadrupole moment of oxygen and the recent value 1·21 D Å used by Yamamoto and Cattani and by Bouanich in line-broadening calculations is examined. When hexadecapolar and repulsive interactions are included, the discrepancy in the values of the quadrupole moment obtained by the bi-refringence method and line width calculations is resolved provided a value of Φ 8 D Å3 is used for the hexadecapole moment of oxygen.