Approximate formulae for the overlap integral of two harmonic oscillator wave functions

The use of second-order perturbation theory to derive approximate formulae for the overlap integral of two harmonic oscillator wave functions is discussed, and the results applied to the theory of intensity distributions in vibrational progressions in electronic spectra. For the vibrational progression m←0 an approximate formula is given which, when the vibrational frequencies of the initial and final states differ by less than 10%, reproduces to an accuracy of 1% or less the intensity profile calculated using the exact formulae for the overlap integrals.