G. Benettin, A. Carati, G. Gallavotti
A rigorous implementation of the Jeans--Landau--Teller
approximation.
(342K, Postscript)

ABSTRACT.  Rigorous bounds on the rate of energy exchanges between
vibrational and translational degrees of freedom are
established in simple classical models of diatomic
molecules. The results are in agreement with an
elementary approximation introduced by Landau and
Teller. The method is perturbative theory ``beyond all
orders'', with diagrammatic techniques (tree
expansions) to organize and manipulate terms, and look
for compensations, like in recent studies on KAM
theorem homoclinic splitting.