Electrical quadrupole momentUnits Type ⤴

The Electric Quadrupole Moment is a quantity which describes the effective shape of the ellipsoid of nuclear charge distribution. A non-zero quadrupole moment Q indicates that the charge distribution is not spherically symmetric. By convention, the value of Q is taken to be positive if the ellipsoid is prolate and negative if it is oblate. In general, the electric quadrupole moment is tensor-valued.