Stability criteria in many-body systems

An expansion of the force function ofn-body dynamical systems, where the equations of motion are expressed in the Jacobian coordinate system, is shown to give rise naturally to a set of (n–1) (n–2) dimensionless parameters ^ki _li {i = 2,...,n;k = 2,...,i – 1 (i 3);l =i + 1,...,n (i n – 1)}, representative of the size of the disturbances on the Keplerian orbits of the various bodies. The expansion is particularized to the casen=3 which involves the consideration of only two parameters ²³ and ₃₂. Further, the work of Szebehely and Zare (1977) is reviewed briefly with reference to a sufficient condition for the stability of corotational coplanar three-body systems, in which two of the bodies form a binary system. This condition is sufficient in the sense that it precludes any possibility of an exchange of bodies, i.e. Hill type stability, however, it is not a necessary condition. These two approaches are then combined to yield regions of stability or instability in terms of the parameters ²³ and ₃₂ for any system of given masses and orbital characteristics (neglecting eccentricities and inclinations) with the following result: that there is a readily applicable rule to assess the likelihood of stability or instability of any given triple system in terms of ²³ and ₃₂.Treating a system ofn bodies as a set of disturbed three-body systems we use existing data from the solar system, known triple systems and numerical experiments in the many-body problem to plot a large number of triple systems in the ²³, ₃₂ plane and show the results agree well with the ²³, ₃₂ analysis above (eccentricities and inclinations as appropriate to most real systems being negligible). We further deal briefly with the extension of the criteria to many-body systems wheren>4, and discuss several interesting cases of dynamical systems.