Do cavity-coupled vibrations change thermal reaction rates?
In plain words
Experiments report that tuning a mirror cavity to a molecular vibration speeds up or slows down a reaction by factors of several without shining any light. Whether this effect is real and what causes it is unresolved.
Precise statement
In Fabry-Perot microcavities under vibrational strong coupling (Rabi splitting of order $100\, \mathrm{cm}^{-1}$ for a reactant vibration) and no external pumping, determine whether thermal rate constants $k(T)$ differ from those of identical out-of-cavity or detuned-cavity controls beyond errors from heating, concentration and mixing, and if so identify the mechanism. An answer is a reproducible rate change with controls plus a quantitative theory, or a demonstration that reported changes come from artifacts.
What would settle it
Multi-laboratory measurements with blinded cavity tuning, in situ temperature monitoring and matched controls, combined with a theory that predicts the sign and size of the change.
Status in the literature
Unverified note: it names recent work and was partly written without a live literature search; it awaits a check by an editor.
In the literature checked (through 2025) positive reports and failed replications coexist and no mechanism is accepted.
Problems built on this one
Special cases
- Survival of cavity rate effects in the collective coupling limit · open
- Reproducibility of the cavity-modified silane deprotection rate · open
Results
No results have been posted on this problem yet.
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