An accurate treatment is developed for the calculation of Compton defects and their physical interpretation. The case of atomic $K$ and $L$-shells analyzed here exhibits the strong dependency of Compton defects with overlapping properties of individual orbitals. For given azimuthal $l$ and magnetic $m$ quantum numbers, a simple generalization allows one to predict the sign of the Compton defect from the parity of $l+m$.

• Received 12 April 1982

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.27.117