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Abstract
2- and 3-photon electric dipole transitions for the harmonic oscillator are shown to have zero intensity. This is extended to the general cases of Δv = n and Δv = n − 2 for n-photon transitions. Although not proved in general, it seems likely that all multiphoton transition moments vanish. This suggests that electric dipole multiphoton transition intensity is due to anharmonicity.
Acknowledgement
REM is grateful to (the late) Professor E. A. Power and to Dr T. Thirunamachandran for their comments on this problem.