This TST expression effectively includes Entropic contribution from the other DOFs that are not R and should be more accurate than Eq. 197. Due to the quadratic form of the light-matter coupled Hamiltonian (Eq. 192), the free energy barrier (or equivalently the ∆F ‡ ) is independent of cavity frequency, ω c , or lightmatter coupling strength, A 0 . 371 In Ref. 371, the PMF for a molecular reaction coordinate was computed for a cavity photon mode coupled to N non-interacting molecules. It was found that the free energy barrier extracted from the potential of mean force is not modified when coupling to the cavity and therefore no change in chemical rate due to cavity coupling is predicted. 371 Thus, Ref. 371 concludes the VSC-modified reactivities can not be explained by TST. Due to the harmonic system-bath interactions and the quadratic light-matter interactions in the Hamiltonian ĤPF in Eq. 192, the TST expression in Eq. 196 can be equivalently expressed as follows 374