Abstract
The electric response held of a small metallic sphere to fluctuating dipolar and quadrupolar momenta is determined from spherical-tenser theory. This allows us to systematically describe the physisorbed atom polarization by introducing the various dipolar and quadrupolar propagators between two points outside the sphere. The non-local character of the electron response inside the sphere is included by using the random-phase approximation and by introducing a Jellium model. Numerical application on the magnitude of the physisorbed atom polarization is presented for typical systems (Xe, Kr, Ar) on (Al, Cu, Ag).