Fluid molecule oscillations and the continuous spectrum near the rayleigh line

Abstract

Of late there have been considerable developments in the theoretical study of the contour of spectral lines and the Rayleigh line by general statistical methods in the theory of random processes. On the basis of the general equations describing the rotational motion of molecules [1,2], and also of the equation which describes the change in the projection of the dipole moment onto the laboratory coordinate axes [3], we seek a correlation function whose Fourier transform leads finally to the required spectral distribution. In the present article we solve the problem of the spectral distribution by a direct analysis of the change in the projection onto the laboratory coordinate axes of the dipole moment induced in a molecule by an incident light wave. We consider a specific model for the rotational motion of fluid molecules.