Fine structure of the Rayleigh spectrum of the scattering of light in molecular gases

A review is given of the current data on the fine structure of the Rayleigh scattering spectra of molecular gases and liquids. A microscopic description of the scattering spectrum of a molecular gas is provided by a method based on the Boltzmann transport equation. It is shown that the fine structure of the spectrum is associated with the interaction of rotational and translational degrees of freedom in collisions. The same approach is used in a study of changes in the spectrum of a gas due to the presence of a magnetic field and also due to deviation of the properties from those of an ideal gas.