Conjugate Points in the Gravitational n-Body Problem |
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| Authors: | Angelo B Mingarelli Chiara M F Mingarelli |
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| Institution: | (1) School of Mathematics and Statistics, Carleton University, KIS 5B6, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada |
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| Abstract: | In an effort to understand the nature of almost periodic orbits in the n-body problem (for all time t) we look first to the more basic question of the oscillatory nature of solutions of this problem (on a half-line, usually
taken as R
+). Intimately related to this is the notion of a conjugate point(due to A. Wintner) of a solution. Specifically, by rewriting the mass unrestricted general problem of n-bodies in a symmetric form we prove that in the gravitational Newtonian n-body problem with collisionless motions there exists arbitrarily large conjugate points in the case of arbitrary (positive)
masses whenever the cube of the reciprocal of at least one of the mutual distances is not integrable at infinity. The implication
of this result is that there are possibly many Wintner oscillatorysolutions in these cases (some of which may or may not be almost periodic). As a consequence, we obtain sufficient conditions
for all continuable solutions (to infinity) to be either unbounded or to allow for near misses (at infinity). The results
also apply to potentials other than Newtonian ones. Our techniques are drawn from results in systems oscillation theory and
are applicable to more general situations.
Dedicated to the memory of Robert M. (Bob) Kauffman, formerly Professor of the
University of Alabama in Birmingham |
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| Keywords: | almost periodic n-body problem bounded motions collisionless conjugate points |
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