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Resonant catalysis of thermally-activated chemical reactions via vibrational polaritons

In the regime of ensemble vibrational strong coupling (VSC), a macroscopic number $N$ of molecular transitions couple to each resonant cavity mode, yielding two hybrid light-matter (polariton) modes, and a reservoir of $N-1$ dark states whose chemical dynamics are essentially those of the bare molecules. This fact is seemingly in opposition to the recently reported modification of thermally activated ground electronic state reactions under VSC. Here, we provide a VSC Marcus-Levich-Jortner electron transfer model that potentially addresses this paradox: while entropy favors the transit through dark-state channels, the chemical kinetics can be dictated by a few polaritonic channels with smaller activation energies. The effects of catalytic VSC are maximal at light-matter resonance, in agreement with experimental observations.