  We consider a one-dimensional "gas" of inelastically colliding particles
where kinetic energy is dissipated by the excitation of vibrational degrees of
freedom. In our model the coefficient of restitution is a stochastic quantity
whose distribution can be calculated from an exact stochastic equation of
motion. We investigate the equipartition properties of the system and propose a
new algorithm for computer simulations, that is a combination of event-driven
and Monte-Carlo methods.
