An approximate stochastic model for the topological dynamics of the periodic
triangular Lorentz gas is constructed. The model, together with an extremum
principle, is used to find a closed form approximation to the diffusion
coefficient as a function of the lattice spacing. This approximation is
superior to the popular Machta and Zwanzig result and agrees well with a range
of numerical estimates.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure
