Swinging between shine and shadow: Theoretical advances on thermally-activated vibropolaritonic chemistry (a perspective)

Polariton chemistry has emerged as an appealing branch of synthetic chemistry that promises mode selectivity and a cleaner approach to kinetic control. Of particular interest are the numerous experiments in which reactivity has been modified by virtue of performing the reaction inside optical microcavities in the absence of optical pumping; this effort is known as "vibropolaritonic chemistry." The optimal conditions for these observations are (1) resonance between cavity and reactive modes at normal incidence ($k=0$), and (2) monotonic increase of the effect with the concentration of emitters in the sample. Strikingly, efforts to understand this phenomenon from a conceptual standpoint have encountered several roadblocks. This perspective documents the most relevant approaches taken by theorists, laying out the contributions and unresolved challenges from each work. We expect this manuscript to inform future endeavors in the quest for the ultimate formalism of vibropolaritonic chemical kinetics.