Multidimensional reactive rate calculations in dissipative chaotic systems

Using concepts from transient chaos and stochastic dynamics, we develop a p erturbative solution for multidimensional activated rate processes. The sol ution is applicable to the underdamped regime where system dynamics prevail s over bath fluctuations. The baseline of the method is the partition of th e multidimensional reactive flux in a chaotic system to a sum of independen t fluxes in one-dimensional systems. The partition is based on the underlyi ng dynamics of the multidimensional system. The method is fast and explains the high and low temperature dependence of multidimensional reaction rates . (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-9606(00)50235-9].