Quantum to Classical

[Cmrossi]

For a classical system, there is a continuous set of states that can describe the quadrupole interaction. However, in a quantum state, we only have a discrete set of states to work with. In the case of l=1, we have 3 states: 1, 0, and -1. If we increase l to some arbitrary value n, then we get 2n+1 states to describe the quadrupole interaction. If we let n go off to infinity, we obtain a continuum of states with an infinitesimal difference between the states. This creates an effective continuous set of states to describe the quadrupole interaction, i.e. the classical system.

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