The Quantum Transition State

Abstract:For nearly a century, the transition state---the structure organizing motion between reactants and products---has seemed to lack an exact quantum counterpart. Its geometry---a recrossing-free dividing surface whose one-way flux gives the exact rate---seems to require position and momentum direction at once, in tension with the uncertainty principle. The obstruction seems fundamental. It is not. The exact quantum equations generate a phase-space flow whose stable and unstable manifolds intersect in a unique bounded trajectory---the quantum transition state---that anchors such a surface. Quantum mechanics does not destroy the transition state; it becomes quantum.

arXiv:2606.10266 [quant-ph]

(or arXiv:2606.10266v5 [quant-ph] for this version)

https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2606.10266 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite

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