Molecular refraction in the Earth's mantle

The Drude law (molecular refraction) for the temperature radiation in a monoatomic model of the Earth's mantle is derived. The considerations are based on the Lorentz electron theory of solids. The characteristic frequency (or eigenfrequency) of independent electron oscillators (in energy units, ) is identified with the band gapE _G of a solid. The only assumption is that solid material related to the Earth's mantle has the mean atomic weight A21 g/mole, and its energy gap (E _G) is about 9 eV. In this case the value of molecular refraction (in cm³/g) is (n ²–1)/=0.5160.52, where andn are the density and the refractive index at wavelength _D=0.5893 m (sodium light), respectively. The average molecular refraction of important silicate and oxide minerals with A21, obtained byAnderson andSchreiber (1965) from laboratory data, is , where denotes the mean arithmetic value calculated from three principal refractive indices of crystal. For the rock-forming minerals with 19A<24 g/mole the new relation was found byAnderson (1975).