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The three-body dispersion energy of a group of molecules is derived by a new method, which gives the energy in terms of the frequency-dependent electric polarizabilities of the molecules and a ‘ susceptibility ’ of the electric field in the space between them. The results are valid at all distances and include retardation effects. At close distances Teller and Axilrod's formula is obtained, and at long ones the energy is identical with Aub and Zienau's expression.
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A. McLachlan (1963) studied this question.
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