Some subtle aspects of the electric dipole approximation (EDA) are discussed, and some persistent criticisms answered. The usual form of the EDA is that the scalar potential is −E⋅r and the vector potential is zero. The EDA does not describe the electromagnetic wave, but only the effect of the electromagnetic wave in the long‐wavelength limit on a nonrelativistic electron bound in an atom. The EDA is the first term in the multipole expansion of the scalar potential in the multipolar gauge, in which the potentials are expressed as integrals over the electric and magnetic fields.
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© 1982 American Association of Physics Teachers.
1982
American Association of Physics Teachers
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