The generalized Langevin equation of motion for a particle trapped in a one-dimensional well with a barrier height V0 and coupled to a dissipative medium is modeled by a harmonic bath. Using the properties of the bath and a normal mode analysis we prove that the reactive frequency defined by Grote and Hynes for averaged motion across the barrier is actually a renormalized effective barrier frequency. We then show that the Kramers–Grote–Hynes expression for the rate of escape over the barrier is just the continuum limit of the usual gas phase harmonic transition state theory expression.

An analytical theory is formulated for the thermal (classical mechanical) rate of escape from a metastable state coupled to a dissipative thermal environment. The working expressions are given solely in terms of the quantities entering the generalized Langevin equation for the particle dynamics. The theory covers the whole range of damping strength and is applicable to an arbitrary memory friction. This solves what is commonly known as the Kramers turnover problem. The basic idea underlying the approach is the observation that the escape dynamics is governed by the unstable normal mode coordinate—and not the particle system coordinate. An application to the case of a particle moving in a piecewise harmonic potential with an exponentially decaying memory-friction is presented. The comparison with the numerical simulation data of Straub, Borkovec, and Berne [J. Chem. Phys. 84, 1788 (1986)] exhibits good agreement between theory and simulation.

A brief history is presented, outlining the development of rate theory during the past century. Starting from Arrhenius [Z. Phys. Chem. 4, 226 (1889)], we follow especially the formulation of transition state theory by Wigner [Z. Phys. Chem. Abt. B 19, 203 (1932)] and Eyring [J. Chem. Phys. 3, 107 (1935)]. Transition state theory (TST) made it possible to obtain quick estimates for reaction rates for a broad variety of processes even during the days when sophisticated computers were not available. Arrhenius’ suggestion that a transition state exists which is intermediate between reactants and products was central to the development of rate theory. Although Wigner gave an abstract definition of the transition state as a surface of minimal unidirectional flux, it took almost half of a century until the transition state was precisely defined by Pechukas [Dynamics of Molecular Collisions B, edited by W. H. Miller (Plenum, New York, 1976)], but even this only in the realm of classical mechanics. Eyring, considered by many to be the father of TST, never resolved the question as to the definition of the activation energy for which Arrhenius became famous. In 1978, Chandler [J. Chem. Phys. 68, 2959 (1978)] finally showed that especially when considering condensed phases, the activation energy is a free energy, it is the barrier height in the potential of mean force felt by the reacting system. Parallel to the development of rate theory in the chemistry community, Kramers published in 1940 [Physica (Amsterdam) 7, 284 (1940)] a seminal paper on the relation between Einstein’s theory of Brownian motion [Einstein, Ann. Phys. 17, 549 (1905)] and rate theory. Kramers’ paper provided a solution for the effect of friction on reaction rates but left us also with some challenges. He could not derive a uniform expression for the rate, valid for all values of the friction coefficient, known as the Kramers turnover problem. He also did not establish the connection between his approach and the TST developed by the chemistry community. For many years, Kramers’ theory was considered as providing a dynamic correction to the thermodynamic TST. Both of these questions were resolved in the 1980s when Pollak [J. Chem. Phys. 85, 865 (1986)] showed that Kramers’ expression in the moderate to strong friction regime could be derived from TST, provided that the bath, which is the source of the friction, is handled at the same level as the system which is observed. This then led to the Mel’nikov–Pollak–Grabert–Hänggi [Mel'nikov and Meshkov, J. Chem. Phys. 85, 1018 (1986); Pollak, Grabert, and Hänggi, J. Chem. Phys. 91, 4073 (1989)] solution of the turnover problem posed by Kramers. Although classical rate theory reached a high level of maturity, its quantum analog leaves the theorist with serious challenges to this very day. As noted by Wigner [Trans. Faraday Soc. 34, 29 (1938)], TST is an inherently classical theory. A definite quantum TST has not been formulated to date although some very useful approximate quantum rate theories have been invented. The successes and challenges facing quantum rate theory are outlined. An open problem which is being investigated intensively is rate theory away from equilibrium. TST is no longer valid and cannot even serve as a conceptual guide for understanding the critical factors which determine rates away from equilibrium. The nonequilibrium quantum theory is even less well developed than the classical, and suffers from the fact that even today, we do not know how to solve the real time quantum dynamics for systems with “many” degrees of freedom.

We show that the best choice of transition state, for the atom exchange reaction in a classical collinear collision of an atom with a diatomic, is a classical bound state embedded in the continuum: a periodic vibration of the triatomic system across the interaction region of the potential surface. These unstable bound states also serve as limit sets of the trapped trajectories that form the boundary of reactivity bands in molecular collisions, and we comment on the implications of this result for calculation of product state distributions. Numerical calculations of transition states are presented for the collinear H+H2 and F+H2 reactions.

Under mild conditions on the long‐range behavior of the potential, we show that classical transition state theory is exact at energy E for a collinear atom–diatom reaction if there is only one candidate for transition state at energy E—that is, only one periodic vibration of energy E across the interaction region.

We show that the collision time may be interpreted as the time average of a flux-flux correlation function. This interpretation leads quantum mechanically to a complex time whose real part is identical to the usual definition as provided by F. T. Smith. The imaginary part is identical, in the semiclassical limit, to the imaginary time associated with tunneling.