The discussion centers on the behavior of neutral atoms under the influence of ambient electromagnetic (EM) radiation and whether this polarization results in shifted electron orbitals. It is established that polarization does not necessarily imply a shift in orbitals; instead, it can lead to a superposition of field-free states. The polarized orbitals can be viewed as linear combinations of these states, and they may also be treated as eigenstates of the Hamiltonian that incorporates the external field. Typically, a perturbative approach is applied due to the weakness of external fields.
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It depends on which orbitals/levels you are talking about. If you are talking about the field-free states, than an external field leads to a superposition of these states. In other words, the polarised orbitals are linear combinations of the field-free orbitals.Getterdog said:When neutral atoms become polarized from ambient EM radiation, does this automatically imply that electrons have shifted orbitals,or do they remain in the same levels but become deformed? Thanks