Instantaneous pair theory for high-frequency vibrational energy relaxation in fluids

Notwithstanding the long and distinguished history of studies of vibrational energy relaxation, exactly how it is that high frequency vibrations manage to relax in a liquid remains somewhat of a mystery. Both experimental and theoretical approaches seem to say that there is a natural frequency range associated with intermolecular motion in liquids, typically spanning no more than a few hundred cm−1. Landau–Teller-type theories explain rather easily how a solvent can absorb any vibrational energy within this “band,” but how is it that molecules can rid themselves of superfluous vibrational energies significantly in excess of these values? In this paper we develop a theory for such processes based on the idea that the crucial liquid motions are those that most rapidly modulate the force on the vibrating coordinate — and that by far the most important of these motions are those involving what we have called the mutual nearest neighbors of the vibrating solute. Specifically, we suggest that whenever there is ...