Journal of Statistical Physics, Vol. 28, No. 3, 1982. p. 521-537.
The kinetic theory for dense gases is modified to take into account the existence of bound states. A molecular chaos condition is used which corresponds to the division of the two- and three-particle Hilbert spaces into scattering and bound-state subspaces. A kinetic stage results from a long-time limit which converges to yield time-independent functionals for the two- and three-particle density matrices, as functionals of the density matrices for atoms and molecules. Coupled kinetic equations are obtained which describe the gas as a reacting mixture of atoms and diatomic molecules. These include the effects of scattering and rearrangement collisions between the atom and the molecule, and of molecular formation and dissociation.