Chapter 15, Problem 15.36E

Interpretation Introduction

Interpretation:

The reason as to why the decay of ${}^1\Sigma$ excited state to the ${\text{Π}}_{\text{g}}$ ground state occurs slowly in ${\text{O}}_{\text{2}}$ is to be stated.

Concept introduction:

A term symbol describes the orbital, spin and total angular momenta of an electronic state. The symbol $L$ represents the vector sum of orbital angular momentum. The symbol $S$ represents the vector sum of spin angular momentum. The symbol $J$ represents the total angular momentum. Therefore, the term symbol is represented as given below.

${}^{2S+1}{L}_J$

In case of diatomic molecules, the term symbol is given by the formula as shown below.

${}^{2S+1}{\Lambda }_{\Omega }$