  We study the orbital Edelstein effect (OEE) that originates from a particular
inversion symmetry breaking mechanism: an asymmetric scalar potential. We
compute OEE of this kind with the help of the Kubo formula in the diffusive
regime for a parabolic band Hamiltonian. We also present a qualitative
derivation of the effect. Both approaches give the same result. This result
does not rely on spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and scales as a cube of the momentum
relaxation time. In sufficiently clean large systems with weak SOC, OEE of this
nature should exceed the spin Edelstein effect by orders of magnitude. It may
also provide an alternative interpretation for some experiments concerning the
spin Hall effect.
