Magnetic multipoles and correlation shortage in pyrochlore cerium stannate

Cerium electronic multipoles in trigonal symmetry viewed in magnetic neutron diffraction are investigated. Analytic expressions for all the magnetic multipoles, and radial integrals calculated with an established atomic code, are used to scrutinize a recent claim to have observed an octupole-ice configuration in a powder sample of pyrochlore Ce2Sn2O7. Three equally plausible suites of multipoles belonging to uncorrelated cerium ions give equally satisfactory accounts of the available diffraction pattern. Our multipoles are suitable for future experiments using Bragg diffraction from a compound that supports long-range magnetic order.