On the Born-Oppenheimer approximation of wave operators in molecular scattering theory

In this paper we study the diatomic molecular scattering by reducing the number of particles through Born-Oppenheimer approximation. Under a non-trapping assumption on the effective potential of the molecular Hamiltonian we use semiclassical resolvent estimates to show that non-adiabatic corrections to the adiabatic (or Born-Oppenheimer) wave operators are small. Furthermore we study the classical limit of the adiabatic wave operators by computing its action on quantum observables microlocalized by use of coherent states. (orig.)