Theory of vibrational relaxation of polyatomic molecules in liquids

Abstract

A simple tractable theory of vibrational relaxation of polyatomic molecules in polyatomic solvents, which is also applicable to solid solutions, is presented. The theory takes as its starting point Fermi’s golden rule, avoids additional assumptions such as the rotating wave or random phase approximations, and treats both the internal degrees of freedom of the relaxing molecule and the bath degrees of freedom in a fully quantum mechanical manner. The results yield intuitively understandable expressions for the relaxation rates. The treatment of the annihilation as well as the creation of all participating bosons allows the theory to go beyond earlier analyses which treated only cascade processes. New predicted features include temperature effects and asymmetry effects in the frequency dependence. The theory is constructed in a manner which facilitates the use of recent developments in the analysis of instantaneous normal modes of liquids.