electric octupole moment

electric octupole moment

[i¦lek·trik ′äk·tə‚pōl ′mō·mənt]

(electricity)

A quantity characterizing an electric charge distribution; obtained by integrating the product of the charge density, the third power of the distance from the origin, and a spherical harmonic Y *_{3 m} over the charge distribution.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.