Collet is known for mathematically exact investigations of several model systems in statistical mechanics and chaos theory. He was an Invited Speaker of the ICM in 1998 in Berlin.[3]
with J.-P. Eckmann: On the abundance of aperiodic behaviour for maps on the unit interval. Bull. Amer. Math. Soc. 3 (1980) Part 1:699-700. doi:10.1090/S0273-0979-1980-14799-0
with Servet Martínez and Bernard Schmitt: On the enhancement of diffusion by chaos, escape rates and stochastic instability. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 351 (1999) 2875–2897. doi:10.1090/S0002-9947-99-02023-1
with J.-P. Eckmann: Liapunov multipliers and decay of correlations in dynamical systems, Journal Stat. Phys., vol. 115, 2004, pp. 217–254 doi:10.1023/B:JOSS.0000019817.71073.61
Some aspects of the central limit theorem and related topics. Harmonic Analysis and Rational Approximation: Their Roles in Signals, Control and Dynamical Systems, Lecture Notes in Control and Information Sciences, vol. 327, Springer Verlag 2006, pp. 105–127 doi:10.1007/11601609_7
with Servet Martinez and Jaime San Martin: Ratio limit theorem for parabolic horn-shaped domains. Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 358 (2006) 5059–5082. doi:10.1090/S0002-9947-06-03908-0
Books
with J.-P. Eckmann: A renormalization group analysis of the hierarchical model in statistical mechanics, Springer Verlag, Lecture Notes in Physics, vol. 74, 1978
with J.-P. Eckmann: Iterated maps on the interval as dynamical systems, Birkhäuser Verlag, Progress in Physics, vol. 1, 1980 (Reprint 2009)
as editor with M. Courbage, S. Métens, A. Neishtadt, and G. Zaslavsky: Chaotic dynamics and transport in classical and quantum systems, Kluwer 2005 (Summer Institute Cargèse 2003)