Electric susceptibility of a gas/solid for the same kind of atoms

[vst98]

Homework Statement

For the same kind of atoms, if a solid is formed from a gas, is the susceptibility increased or decreased compared to the gas phase ?
Why ?

Homework Equations

Susceptibility of a gas is given as

χ=N/V * α

where N/V is average particle density and α is the atomic polarizability.

The Attempt at a Solution

At first sight, since N/V would increase with solid formation the susceptibility would also increase.
But I doubt that this is a plausible answer.

 

[vst98]

Is there anyone here who simply knows is the electric susceptibility of
a gas smaller or larger compared to solid for the same kind of substance/atoms ?
Are there some experimental physicist here ? It does not have to be an explanation.

I know that when solid forms we will have a field acting on individual atoms coming from neighboring atoms. Then the sum of applied external field and the field coming from the neighboring atoms gives the resulting local field. But I'm not sure is this local field related to increase/decreased of susceptibility in a solid.

 

[vst98]

I would appreciate if someone would just share his thoughts on this.