Vibrational relaxation and line widths in liquids dephasing by intermolecular forces

A theory of vibrational relaxation in liquids is presented in which the vibrations are loosely coupled to a bath or lattice of molecular translations and rotations by intermolecular forces. Using the second-order perturbation expressions familiar from magnetic resonance the secular contribution to the line width is calculated. Different coupling paths are considered and expressions given for the line widths in a liquid mixture in terms of number densities and diffusion coefficients valid when reorientation is slow and translation diffusional.