Keplerian periodic orbits in the isosceles problem

The planar isosceles three-body problem where the two symmetric bodies have small masses is considered as a perturbation of the Kepler problem. We prove that the circular orbits can be continued to saddle orbits of the Isosceles problem. This continuation is not possible in the elliptic case. Their perturbed orbits tend to a continued circular one or approach a triple collision. The basic tool used is the study of the Poincaré maps associated with the periodic solutions. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Second Species Periodic Orbits of the Elliptic 3 Body Problem

We consider the plane restricted elliptic 3 body problem with small mass ratio and small eccentricity and prove the existence of many periodic orbits shadowing chains of collision orbits of the Kepler problem. Such periodic orbits were first studied by Poincaré for the non-restricted 3 body problem. Poincaré called them second species solutions.     

How the Method of Minimization of Action Avoids Singularities

The method of minimization of action is a powerful technique of proving the existence of particular and interesting solutions of the n-body problem, but it suffers from the possible interference of singularities. The minimization of action is an optimization and, after a short presentation of a few optimization theories, our analysis of interference of singularities will show that:(A) An n-body solution minimizing the action between given boundary conditions has no discontinuity: all n-bodies have a continuous and bounded motion and thus all eventual singularities are collisions;(B) A beautiful extension of Lambert's theorem shows that, for these minimizing solutions, no double collision can occur at an intermediate time;(C) The proof can be extended to triple and to multiple collisions. Thus, the method of minimization of action leads to pure n-body motions without singularity at any intermediate time, even if one or several collisions are imposed at initial and/or final times.This method is suitable for non-infinitesimal masses only. Fortunately, a similar method, with the same general property with respect to the singularities, can be extended to n-body problems including infinitesimal masses.     

Steady state obliquity of a rigid body in the spin–orbit resonant problem: application to Mercury

In this paper, we consider the elliptic collinear solutions of the classical n-body problem, where the n bodies always stay on a straight line, and each of them moves on its own elliptic orbit with the same eccentricity. Such a motion is called an elliptic Euler–Moulton collinear solution. Here we prove that the corresponding linearized Hamiltonian system at such an elliptic Euler–Moulton collinear solution of n-bodies splits into \((n-1)\) independent linear Hamiltonian systems, the first one is the linearized Hamiltonian system of the Kepler 2-body problem at Kepler elliptic orbit, and each of the other \((n-2)\) systems is the essential part of the linearized Hamiltonian system at an elliptic Euler collinear solution of a 3-body problem whose mass parameter is modified. Then the linear stability of such a solution in the n-body problem is reduced to those of the corresponding elliptic Euler collinear solutions of the 3-body problems, which for example then can be further understood using numerical results of Martínez et al. on 3-body Euler solutions in 2004–2006. As an example, we carry out the detailed derivation of the linear stability for an elliptic Euler–Moulton solution of the 4-body problem with two small masses in the middle.     

Families of symmetric relative periodic orbits originating from the circular Euler solution in the isosceles three-body problem

We study symmetric relative periodic orbits in the isosceles three-body problem using theoretical and numerical approaches. We first prove that another family of symmetric relative periodic orbits is born from the circular Euler solution besides the elliptic Euler solutions. Previous studies also showed that there exist infinitely many families of symmetric relative periodic orbits which are born from heteroclinic connections between triple collisions as well as planar periodic orbits with binary collisions. We carry out numerical continuation analyses of symmetric relative periodic orbits, and observe abundant families of symmetric relative periodic orbits bifurcating from the two families born from the circular Euler solution. As the angular momentum tends to zero, many of the numerically observed families converge to heteroclinic connections between triple collisions or planar periodic orbits with binary collisions described in the previous results, while some of them converge to “previously unknown” periodic orbits in the planar problem.     

High-resolution simulations of stellar collisions between equal-mass main-sequence stars in globular clusters

We performed high-resolution simulations of two stellar collisions relevant for stars in globular clusters. We considered one head-on collision and one off-axis collision between two 0.6-M_⊙ main-sequence stars. We show that a resolution of about 100 000 particles is sufficient for most studies of the structure and evolution of blue stragglers. We demonstrate conclusively that collision products between main-sequence stars in globular clusters do not have surface convection zones larger than 0.004 M_⊙ after the collision, nor do they develop convection zones during the 'pre-main-sequence' thermal relaxation phase of their post-collision evolution. Therefore, any mechanism which requires a surface convection zone (i.e. chemical mixing or angular momentum loss via a magnetic wind) cannot operate in these stars. We show that no disc of material surrounding the collision product is produced in off-axis collisions. The lack of both a convection zone and a disc proves a continuing problem for the angular momentum evolution of blue stragglers in globular clusters.     

Triple collisions in the one-dimensional three-body problem

We consider the motions of particles in the one-dimensional Newtonian three-body problem as a function of initial values. Using a mapping of orbits to symbol sequences we locate the initial values leading to triple collisions. These turn out to form curves which give clear structure to the region in which the motions depend sensitively on initial conditions. In addition to finding the triple collision orbits we also locate orbits which end up to a triple collision in both directions of time, that is, orbits which are finite both in space and time. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A model for binary-binary close encounters and collisions from a dynamical point of view

The goal of this paper is to provide a model for binary-binary interactions in star clusters, which is based on simultaneous binary collision of a special case of the one-dimensional 4-body problem where four masses move symmetrically about the center of mass. From the theoretical point of view, the singularity due to binary collisions between point masses can be handled by means of regularization theory. Our main tool is a change of coordinates due to McGehee by which we blow-up the singular set associated to total collision and replace it with an invariant manifold which includes binary and simultaneous binary collisions, and then gain a complete picture of the local behavior of the solutions near to total collision via the homothetic orbit.     

On the Dynamics and Topology of the Elliptic Rectilinear Restricted 3-Body Problem

We study a symmetric collinear restricted 3-body problem, where the equal mass primaries perform elliptic collisions, while a third massless body moves in the line between the primaries, during the time between two consecutive elliptic collisions. After desingularizing binary and triple collisions, we prove the existence of a transversal heteroclinic orbit beginning and ending in triple collision. This orbit is the unique homothetic orbit that the problem possess. Finally, we describe the topology of the compact extended phase space. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Evolution of the General Solution of the Restricted Problem Covering Symmetric and Escape Solutions

The work presented in paper I (Papadakis, K.E., Goudas, C.L.: Astrophys. Space Sci. (2006)) is expanded here to cover the evolution of the approximate general solution of the restricted problem covering symmetric and escape solutions for values of μ in the interval [0, 0.5]. The work is purely numerical, although the available rich theoretical background permits the assertions that most of the theoretical issues related to the numerical treatment of the problem are known. The prime objective of this work is to apply the ‘Last Geometric Theorem of Poincaré’ (Birkhoff, G.D.: Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 14, 14 (1913); Poincaré, H.: Rend. Cir. Mat. Palermo 33, 375 (1912)) and compute dense sets of axisymmetric periodic family curves covering the initial conditions space of bounded motions for a discrete set of values of the basic parameter μ spread along the entire interval of permissible values. The results obtained for each value of μ, tested for completeness, constitute an approximation of the general solution of the problem related to symmetric motions. The approximate general solution of the same problem related to asymmetric solutions, also computable by application of the same theorem (Poincaré-Birkhoff) is left for a future paper. A secondary objective is identification-computation of the compact space of escape motions of the problem also for selected values of the mass parameter μ. We first present the approximate general solution for the integrable case μ = 0 and then the approximate solution for the nonintegrable case μ = 10⁻³. We then proceed to presenting the approximate general solutions for the cases μ = 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5, in all cases building them in four phases, namely, presenting for each value of μ, first all family curves of symmetric periodic solutions that re-enter after 1 oscillation, then adding to it successively, the family curves that re-enter after 2 to 10 oscillations, after 11 to 30 oscillations, after 31 to 50 oscillations and, finally, after 51 to 100 oscillations. We identify in these solutions, considered as functions of the mass parameter μ, and at μ = 0 two failures of continuity, namely: 1. Integrals of motion, exempting the energy one, cease to exist for any infinitesimal positive value of μ. 2. Appearance of a split into two separate sub-domains in the originally (for μ = 0) unique space of bounded motions. The computed approximations of the general solution for all values of μ appear to fulfill the ‘completeness’ criterion inside properly selected sub-domains of the domain of bounded motions in the (x, C) plane, which means that these sub-domains are filled countably densely by periodic family curves, which form a laminar flow-line pattern. The family curves in this pattern may, or may not, be intersected by a ‘basic’ family curve segment of order from 1 up to 3. The isolated points generating asymptotic solutions resemble ‘sink’ points toward which dense sets of periodic family curves spiral. The points in the compact domain in the (x, C) plane resting outside the domain of bounded motions (μ = 0), including the gap between the two large sub-domains (μ > 0) created by the aforementioned split, generate escape motions. The gap between the two large sub-domains of bounded motions grows wider for growing μ. Also, a number of compact gaps that generate escape motions exist within the body of the two sub-domains of bounded motions. The approximate general solutions computed include symmetric, heteroclinic, asymptotic, collision and escape solutions, thus constituting one component of the full approximate general solution of the problem, the second and final component being that of asymmetric solutions.     

Formation of black holes through BSW effect and black hole–black hole collisions

We study mechanism of formation of black holes (BHs) from collisions of particles in the vicinity of the supermassive black hole acting as a particle accelerator trough BSW (Banados-Silk-West) effect. Moreover, we also investigate BH-BH collision, in which stellar black holes colliding near the horizon of a rotating supermassive black hole can reach large values of the center-of-mass energy. This result implies that high arbitrary energy of collisions causes to be transformed into radiation energy and particles, which might bring possible visible signals through the astrophysical observations. We study the radiation energy from a collision of two accelerating stellar black holes and find a maximal value of the radiation energy to be nearly E _rad ≈2.5?10⁵⁶ erg for the ultrarelativistic value of v/c=0.99 from BH-BH collisions.     

Anisotropic Kepler and anisotropic two fixed centres problems

In this paper we show that the anisotropic Kepler problem is dynamically equivalent to a system of two point masses which move in perpendicular lines (or planes) and interact according to Newton’s law of universal gravitation. Moreover, we prove that generalised version of anisotropic Kepler problem as well as anisotropic two centres problem are non-integrable. This was achieved thanks to investigation of differential Galois groups of variational equations along certain particular solutions. Properties of these groups yield very strong necessary integrability conditions.     

Periodic orbits of the planar collision restricted 3-body problem

Using the continuation method we prove that the circular and the elliptic symmetric periodic orbits of the planar rotating Kepler problem can be continued into periodic orbits of the planar collision restricted 3-body problem. Additionally, we also continue to this restricted problem the so called “comet orbits”. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Orbit determination with the two-body integrals. II

The first integrals of the Kepler problem are used to compute preliminary orbits starting from two short observed arcs of a celestial body, which may be obtained either by optical or by radar observations. We write polynomial equations for this problem, which can be solved using the powerful tools of computational Algebra. An algorithm to decide if the linkage of two short arcs is successful, i.e. if they belong to the same observed body, is proposed and tested numerically. This paper continues the research started in Gronchi et al. (Celest. Mech. Dyn. Astron. 107(3):299–318, 2010), where the angular momentum and the energy integrals were used. The use of a suitable component of the Laplace–Lenz vector in place of the energy turns out to be convenient, in fact the degree of the resulting system is reduced to less than half.     

Orbit determination with the two-body integrals

We investigate a method to compute a finite set of preliminary orbits for solar system bodies using the first integrals of the Kepler problem. This method is thought for the applications to the modern sets of astrometric observations, where often the information contained in the observations allows only to compute, by interpolation, two angular positions of the observed body and their time derivatives at a given epoch; we call this set of data attributable. Given two attributables of the same body at two different epochs we can use the energy and angular momentum integrals of the two-body problem to write a system of polynomial equations for the topocentric distance and the radial velocity at the two epochs. We define two different algorithms for the computation of the solutions, based on different ways to perform elimination of variables and obtain a univariate polynomial. Moreover we use the redundancy of the data to test the hypothesis that two attributables belong to the same body (linkage problem). It is also possible to compute a covariance matrix, describing the uncertainty of the preliminary orbits which results from the observation error statistics. The performance of this method has been investigated by using a large set of simulated observations of the Pan-STARRS project.     

Chaotic quasi-collision trajectories in the 3-centre problem

We study a particular kind of chaotic dynamics for the planar 3-centre problem on small negative energy level sets. We know that chaotic motions exist, if we make the assumption that one of the centres is far away from the other two (see Bolotin and Negrini, J Differ Equ 190:539–558, 2003): this result has been obtained by the use of the Poincaré-Melnikov theory. Here we change the assumption on the third centre: we do not make any hypothesis on its position, and we obtain a perturbation of the 2-centre problem by assuming its intensity to be very small. Then, for a dense subset of possible positions of the perturbing centre in \mathbbR²{\mathbb{R}^2} , we prove the existence of uniformly hyperbolic invariant sets of periodic and chaotic almost collision orbits by the use of a general result of Bolotin and MacKay (Celest Mech Dyn Astron 77:49–75, 77:49–75, 2000; Celest Mech Dyn Astron 94(4):433–449, 2006). To apply it, we must preliminarily construct chains of collision arcs in a proper way. We succeed in doing that by the classical regularisation of the 2-centre problem and the use of the periodic orbits of the regularised problem passing through the third centre.     

A comprehensive set of simulations of high-velocity collisions between main-sequence stars

We report on a very large set of simulations of collisions between two main-sequence (MS) stars. These computations were carried out with the smoothed particle hydrodynamics method. Realistic stellar structure models for evolved MS stars were used. In order to sample an extended domain of initial parameters space (masses of the stars, relative velocity and impact parameter), more than 14 000 simulations were carried out. We considered stellar masses ranging between 0.1 and  75 M_⊙  and relative velocities up to a few thousand km s⁻¹. To limit the computational burden, a resolution of 1000–32 000 particles per star was used. The primary goal of this study was to build a complete data base from which the result of any collision can be interpolated. This allows us to incorporate the effects of stellar collisions with an unprecedented level of realism into dynamical simulations of galactic nuclei and other dense stellar clusters. We make the data describing the initial condition and outcome (mass and energy loss, angle of deflection) of all our simulations available on the Internet. We find that the outcome of collisions depends sensitively on the stellar structure and that, in most cases, using polytropic models is inappropriate. Published fitting formulae for the collision outcomes, established from a limited set of collisions, prove of limited use because they do not allow robust extrapolation to other stellar structures or relative velocities.     

Étude du choc de deux petites masses en présence d'un troisième corps de masse prépondérante

The analytical study of the evolution in the rectilinear problem of three bodies, leads us to consider the collision between two bodies,M ₂ andM ₃, in the presence of the third body,M ₁. This problem, which seems to be difficult to approach in the general case, can be partly solved if the masses ofM ₂ andM ₃ are equal and can be neglected in regard toM ₁. In this particular case of the general problem, the mechanical study of a collision betweenM ₂ andM ₃, leads to two distinct types of collisions: ‘instantaneous collisions’, and ‘collisions with repetition’, according to the value of a parameter which depends on the position and the speed of the binaryM ₂ M ₃, relative toM ₁, in the collision. In the first type, the collision exchanges the speeds ofM ₂ andM ₃, while in the second type, there is a series of collisions succeeding each other.     

Analysis of some degenerate quadruple collisions

We consider the trapezoidal problem of four bodies. This is a special problem where only three degrees of freedom are involved. The blow up method of McGehee can be used to deal with the quadruple collision. Two degenerate cases are studied in this paper: the rectangular and the collinear problems. They have only two degrees of freedom and the analysis of total collapse can be done in a way similar to the one used for the collinear and isosceles problems of three bodies. We fully analyze the flow on the total collision manifold, reducing the problem of finding heteroclinic connections to the study of a single ordinary differential equation. For the collinear case, from which arises a one parameter family of equations, the analysis for extreme values of the parameter is done and numerical computations fill up the gap for the intermediate values. Dynamical consequences for possible motions near total collision as well as for regularization are obtained.Paper presented at the 1981 Oberwolfach Conference on Mathematical Methods in Celestial Mechanics.Dedicated to Prof. Szebehely on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday.     

Periodic motions generated by Lagrangian solutions of the circular restricted three-body problem

The predictor-corrector method is described for numerically extending with respect to the parameters of the periodic solutions of a Lagrangian system, including recurrent solutions. The orbital stability in linear approximation is investigated simultaneously with its construction.The method is applied to the investigation of periodic motions, generated from Lagrangian solutions of the circular restricted three body problem. Small short-period motions are extended in the plane problem with respect to the parameters h, µ (h = energy constant, µ = mass ratio of the two doninant gravitators); small vertical oscillations are extended in the three-dimensional problem with respect to the parameters h, µ. For both problems in parameter's plane h, µ domaines of existince and stability of derived periodic motions are constructed, resonance curves of third and fourth orders are distinguished.