Comments on Many‐Body Dielectric Relaxation in Solids

A discussion is given elaborating some salient features of a recently proposed many‐body theory of dielectric relaxation in solids. It is pointed out that orientational polarisation involves disorder as an essential element and this leads to important conclusions regarding the relaxation processes. Three types of transitions, outlined in the original theory, are discussed in some detail and distinctions are made between “large” and “small” transitions. The physical nature of correlated states is discussed and some comments are made about energy loss processes involved in the many‐body model of dielectric relaxation, with particular reference to the frequency‐independent ratio of energy lost per cycle to energy stored in polarisation.