With that convention, states with different energies are given different Ω values. For states with positive values of A (which are said to be regular), increasing values of Ω correspond to increasing values of energies; on the other hand, with A negative (said to be inverted) the energy order is reversed. Including higher-order effects can lead to a spin-orbital levels or energy that do not even follow the increasing value of Ω. When Λ = 0 there is no spin–orbit splitting to first order in perturbation theory, as the associated energy is zero. So for a given S, all of its MS values are degenerate. This degeneracy is lifted when spin–orbit interaction is treated to higher order in perturbation theory, but still states with same |MS| are degenerate in a non-rotating molecule. We can speak of a 5Σ2 substate, a 5Σ1 substate or a 5Σ0 substate. Except for the case Ω = 0, these substates have a degeneracy of 2. Reflection through a plane containing the internuclear axis There are an infinite number of planes containing the internuclear axis and hence there are an infinite number of possible reflections. For any of these planes, molecular terms with Λ > 0 always have a state which is symmetric with respect to this reflection and one state that is antisymmetric. Rather than labelling those situations as, e.g., 2Π±, the ± is omitted. For the Σ states, however, this two-fold degeneracy disappears, and all Σ states are either symmetric under any plane containing the internuclear axis, or antisymmetric. These two situations are labeled as Σ+ or Σ−. Reflection through an inversion center: u and g symmetry Taking the molecular center of mass as origin of coordinates, consider the change of all electrons' position from (xi, yi, zi) to (−xi, −yi, −zi). If the resulting wave function is unchanged, it is said to be gerade (German for even) or have even parity; if the wave function changes sign then it is said to be ungerade (odd) or have odd parity. For a molecule with a center of inversion, all orbitals will be symmetric or antisymmetric. The resulting wavefunction for the whole multielectron system will be gerade if an even number of electrons are in ungerade orbitals, and ungerade if there are an odd number of electrons in ungerade orbitals, regardless of the number of electrons in gerade orbitals. An alternative method for determining the