We establish a quantum kinetic equation describing the transport properties
of the vibrons in a molecular monolayer adsorbed on a dielectric substrate
. A renormalization procedure is applied to the Hamiltonian of the system w
hich is then separated in a vibron Hamiltonian, a bath Hamiltonian connecte
d the external motions and a coupling Hamiltonian between the vibrons and t
he external modes. A perturbative analysis based on the projector method al
lows us to eliminate the irrelevant information related to the bath dynamic
s. The use of conventional approximations (Markov limit and Wick theorem) l
eads us to write the kinetic equation in a form exhibiting linear and nonli
near contributions. The linear term characterizes irreversible processes co
nnected to the bath fluctuations whereas the nonlinear term represents a se
lf-modulation of the dynamical matrix with respect to the vibron distributi
on. An application of the transport of CO vibrons on NaCl(100) illustrates
the method. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.