= H. A. Kramers
{c}
<H. A. Kramers> modeled thermally activated escape from a potential well using <Brownian motion> with <friction>. His 1940 treatment linked <chemical reaction> rates to barrier crossing under both random forcing and dissipation.<Brownian motion in a field of force and the diffusion model of chemical reactions by H. A. Kramers>[Diffusion model and escape-rate regimes]{ref}
The exponential suppression reflects the <energy> needed to reach the barrier, but the prefactor depends on the frictional regime. Thus knowing a barrier height alone is insufficient to predict a reaction rate. The <Kramers escape rate> connects equilibrium thermal probabilities with the dynamics that carry a system out of a metastable state.
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