Hermitian rate operator

Here, Ri f and Rf i are the rates (per moleeule) of transitions for the i ==> f and f ==> i transitions respeetively. As noted above, these rates are proportional to the intensity of the light souree (i.e., the photon intensity) at the resonant frequeney and to the square of a matrix element eonneeting the respeetive states. This matrix element square is oti fp in the former ease and otf ip in the latter. Beeause the perturbation operator whose matrix elements are ai f and af i is Hermitian (this is true through all orders of perturbation theory and for all terms in the long-wavelength expansion), these two quantities are eomplex eonjugates of one another, and, henee ai fp = af ip, from whieh it follows that Ri f = Rf i. This means that the state-to-state absorption and stimulated emission rate eoeffieients (i.e., the rate per moleeule undergoing the transition) are identieal. This result is referred to as the prineiple of microscopic reversibility. 

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