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The electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) g factors g(parallel to) and gperpendicular to and the local structure for the trigonal Zr(3+) center in X-ray irradiated yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) are theoretically investigated from the perturbation formulas of the g factors for a 4d(1) ion in trigonally distorted octahedra. Based on the studies, in this trigonal center (characterized as [ZrO(6)](9-) cluster associated with two oxygen vacancies V(o) along the [ 111] axis), the O(2-) ions in the ligand triangles are found to displace towards the neighbouring Vo by about 0.42 Angstrom due to the electrostatic attraction of the V(o). The above displacement is comparable with that (approximate to 0.36 Angstrom) obtained from neutron diffraction measurements and those (approximate to 0.24-0.37 Angstrom) based on the optical spectral analysis and crystal-field calculations in the previous works. Particularly, partial quenching of the spin-orbit (SO) coupling interaction (i.e., gamma(SO) approximate to 0.44) due to the dynamic Jahn-Teller effect (DJTE) and its influence on the g factors, which were ignored by the previous authors, are taken into account in the present work. The validity of the results is discussed. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.