Adiabatic elimination

Adiabatic elimination replaces a rapidly relaxing variable by its instantaneous stable quasistatic value. If $\dot{R}=-\Gamma (t)R+P(t)$ with $\Gamma >0$, write $R=R_0+\delta R$, $R_0=P/\Gamma$. Then $\dot{\delta R}+\Gamma \delta R=-{\dot{R}}_0$. After the transient, $\delta R\simeq -{\dot{R}}_0/\Gamma$ when coefficients vary slowly compared with ${\Gamma }^{-1}$. This gives both the leading reduction and its time-scale error; rapid relaxation alone does not justify an additional Taylor expansion in another parameter.