On the self-consistent equation for the microscopic local electric field in dielectric systems

The rigorous treatment of light scattering effects in dense dielectric media can be achieved only by accounting fully for the dipolar induction appearing in the microscopic Maxwell equations. The starting point, namely the expression for the local microscopic electric field, is here cast in a new form which allows us to deduce, rigorously, for a system of point polarizable atoms, a tractable self-consistent equation for the effective atomic polarizability. The main implications of this equation, which have already been used successfully in evaluating the Brillouin scattering intensity in rare gas crystals, are briefly discussed.