ABSTRACT
A wide variety of chemical and biological systems involve components or states that are in thermal equilibrium. A system can be composed of two or more chemical species that are constantly interconverting, one to another, without the concentrations of the species changing. The interconversion occurs on the ground electronic state potential surface. Call two species in equilibria A and B. The essence of equilibrium is that the forward rate is equal to the backward rate. That is, the rate of As turning into Bs is equal to the rate of Bs turning into As. By measuring the concentrations of the species, the equilibrium constant can be determined. However, knowing the equilibrium constant provides no information on the chemical dynamics.
