Abstract
Interaction between the electronic configurations (nl)N and (nl)N±1(nl)1 can be represented for (nl)N by the addition of effective three-particle operators to the Hamiltonian, the effective two-particle parts being absorbed by operators already present in the elementary linear theory of configuration interaction. For f electrons, the three-particle operators are decomposed into nine operators ti that are labeled by irreducible representations of R7 and G2. The effects of three of them can be reproduced by two-particle operators; hence, only six additional parameters are required to describe the interaction. Tables of matrix elements are given, and the properties of the operators ti with respect to symplectic symmetry and quasispin are examined.