Three-dimensional periodic solutions around equilibrium points in Hill's problem

The three-dimensional periodic solutions originating at the equilibrium points of Hill's limiting case of the Restricted Three Body Problem, are studied. Fourth-order parametric expansions by the Lindstedt-Poincaré method are constructed for them. The two equilibrium points of the problem give rise to two exactly symmetrical families of three-dimensional periodic solutions. The family_HL _2v ^e originating at L₂ is continued numerically and is found to extend to infinity. The family originating at L₁ behaves in exactly the same way and is not presented. All orbits of the two families are unstable.     

Orbits and manifolds near the equilibrium points around a rotating asteroid

We study the orbits and manifolds near the equilibrium points of a rotating asteroid. The linearised equations of motion relative to the equilibrium points in the gravitational field of a rotating asteroid, the characteristic equation and the stable conditions of the equilibrium points are derived and discussed. First, a new metric is presented to link the orbit and the geodesic of the smooth manifold. Then, using the eigenvalues of the characteristic equation, the equilibrium points are classified into 8 cases. A theorem is presented and proved to describe the structure of the submanifold as well as the stable and unstable behaviours of a massless test particle near the equilibrium points. The linearly stable, the non-resonant unstable, and the resonant equilibrium points are discussed. There are three families of periodic orbits and four families of quasi-periodic orbits near the linearly stable equilibrium point. For the non-resonant unstable equilibrium points, there are four relevant cases; for the periodic orbit and the quasi-periodic orbit, the structures of the submanifold and the subspace near the equilibrium points are studied for each case. For the resonant equilibrium points, the dimension of the resonant manifold is greater than 4, and we find at least one family of periodic orbits near the resonant equilibrium points. As an application of the theory developed here, we study relevant orbits for the asteroids 216 Kleopatra, 1620 Geographos, 4769 Castalia and 6489 Golevka.     

Vertical stability of periodic solutions around the triangular equilibrium points

The vertical stability character of the families of short and long period solutions around the triangular equilibrium points of the restricted three-body problem is examined. For three values of the mass parameter less than equal to the critical value of Routh (μ _R ) i.e. for μ = 0.000953875 (Sun-Jupiter), μ = 0.01215 (Earth-Moon) and μ = μ _R = 0.038521, it is found that all such solutions are vertically stable. For μ > (μ _R ) vertical stability is studied for a number of ‘limiting’ orbits extended to μ = 0.45. The last limiting orbit computed by Deprit for μ = 0.044 is continued to a family of periodic orbits into which the well known families of long and short period solutions merge. The stability characteristics of this family are also studied.     

Orbit calculations near by the equilibrium points by a discrete mechanics method

Basic formulas of discrete mechanics in a rotating frame of references are obtained. Its application to several computer examples of orbits near by the equilibrium points of the Earth-Moon system are presented, and—for computational purposes—an algorithm is given.     

Asymptotic solutions of the restricted problem near the equilateral Lagrangian points

The restricted problem in the vicinity of the Lagrangian point L₄ is studied by finding a convergent binomial expansion of the disturbing function. Using a Hamiltonian formulation in Delaunay variables and removing the short-period terms a resonance problem (already considered by Giacaglia (1970) in an attempt of enlarging the Ideal Resonance) is obtained. It is shown that this extension is reducible to Garfinkel's ideal resonance in the libration region.     

Conditionally periodic solutions near the libration points of the restricted circular three-body problem

Families of conditionally periodic solutions have been found by a slightly modified Lyapunov method of determining periodic solutions near the libration points of the restricted three-body problem. When the frequencies of free oscillations are commensurable, the solutions found are transformed into planar or spatial periodic solutions. The results are confirmed by numerically integrating the starting nonlinear differential equations of motion.     

Periodic motion around the triangular equilibrium points of the photogravitational restricted problem of three bodies

In this article the effect of radiation pressure on the periodic motion of small particles in the vicinity of the triangular equilibrium points of the restricted three body problem is examined. Second order parametric expansions are constructed and the families of periodic orbits are determined numerically for two sets of values of the mass and radiation parameters corresponding to the non-resonant and the resonant case. The stability of each orbit is also studied.     

Non-stationary motion of a rotating infinitely flattened self-gravitating system near an equilibrium state

An example of a rotating infinitely flattened self-gravitating particle system in steady state is considered. Non-stationary motion of the system in the neighborhood of this equilibrium solution is determined through the sencond-order perturbation. The first order perturbation terms give rise to a configuration of straight bars emanating from the center which become skewed under the influence of the second-order terms. In the case of a single bar, as in a barred spiral, the skewing is in the arms leading or arms trailing sense, according to whether the system is developing away from or approaching the equilibrium state.     

Three-dimensional bifurcations of periodic solutions around the triangular equilibrium points of the restricted three-body problem

Vertically critical, planar periodic solutions around the triangular equilibrium points of the Restricted Three-Body Problem are found to exist for values of the mass parameter in the interval [0.03, 0.5]. Four series of such solutions are computed. The families of three-dimensional periodic solutions that branch off these critical orbits are computed for µ = 0.3 and are continued till their end. All orbits of these families are unstable.     

Secular variations in the restricted problem: A numerical technique for studying stability of equilibrium solutions

In this paper we develop and implement an explicit numerical technique for studying stability of equilibrium solutions concerning the secular variations in the restricted problem. In our implementation, we use fourth-order expansions for the secular terms, but the method itself is independent of the particular order used as upper limit in the required expansions.     

Stability of equilibrium points in the three-dipole problem

In the three dipole problem we assume each one of the magnetic dipoles to be located on one member of a three celestial bodies system moving in circles according to the equilaterial solution of Lagrange. Using the method of characteristic exponents we study here for first time the stability of planar and three dimensional equilibrium points of charged particles moving under the electromagnetic force of the system. Applying this theoretical procedure we give an extensive numerical investigation for the stability of the equilibria for a lot combinations of the values of the parameters of the electromagnetic field.     

The effect of eccentricity and inclination on the motion near the Lagrangian points L4 and L5

We study the effect of eccentricity and inclination on small amplitude librations around the equilibrium points L ₄ and L ₅ in the circular restricted three-body problem. We show that the effective libration centres can be displaced appreciably from the equilateral configuration. The secular extrema of the eccentricity as a function of the argument of pericentre are shifted by ∼25 ° This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Construction of the semi-analytical and numerical solutions to the problem of rotational motion of the moon

New high-precision, semianalytical and numerical solutions to the problem of the rotational motion of the Moon are obtained, for use in the long 418.9-year time frame. The dynamics of the rotational motion of the Moon is studied numerically using the Rodrigues-Hamilton parameters, relative to the fixed ecliptic for the epoch J2000. The results of the numerical solution to the problem under study are compared with a compiled semianalytical theory of Moon rotation (SMR). The initial conditions for the numerical integration have been taken from the SMR. The comparative discrepancies derived from the comparison between the numerical solutions and the SMR do not exceed 1.5″ on the time-scale of 418.9 yr. The investigation of the comparative discrepancies between the numerical and semianalytical solutions is performed using the least squares and spectral analysis methods in the Newtonian case. All the periodic terms describing the behavior of the comparative discrepancies are interpreted as the corrections to the semianalytical SMR theory. As a result, the series are constructed to describe the rotation of the Moon (MRS2010) in the time interval under study. The numerical solution for the Moon’s rotation has been obtained anew, with new initial conditions calculated using MRS2010. The discrepancies between the new numerical solution and MRS2010 do not exceed 20 arc milliseconds on the time-scale of 418.9 years. The results of the comparison suggest that that the MRS2010 series describe the rotation of the Moon more correctly than the SMR series.     

Relative equilibrium solutions in the four body problem

Beyond the casen=3 little was known about relative equilibrium solutions of then-body problem up to recent years. Palmore's work provides in the general case much useful information. In the casen=4 he gives the totality of solutions when the four masses are equal and studies some degeneracies. We present here a survey of solutions for arbitrary masses, discussing the manifolds of degeneracy. The ordering of restricted potentials allows a counting of the number of bifurcation sets and different invariant manifolds. An analysis of linear stability is done in the restricted and general cases. As a result, values of the masses ensuring linear stability are given.     

Numerical orbits near the triangular lunar libration points

The behavior of a test particle placed at a triangular libration point of the Earth-Moon system is calculated using Newton's equations for the four-body problem, with arbitrarily chosen initial conditions. If the orbits of the massive bodies have their real eccentricities, then the test particle leaves the vicinity of the libration point in three years, much faster than if the orbits were circular. Very small particles are affected by solar radiation pressure, and may leave even faster.     

The eleventh motion constant of the two-body problem

The two-body problem is a twelfth-order time-invariant dynamic system, and therefore has eleven mutually-independent time-independent integrals, here referred to as motion constants. Some of these motion constants are related to the ten mutually-independent algebraic integrals of the n-body problem, whereas some are particular to the two-body problem. The problem can be decomposed into mass-center and relative-motion subsystems, each being sixth-order and each having five mutually-independent motion constants. This paper presents solutions for the eleventh motion constant, which relates the behavior of the two subsystems. The complete set of mutually-independent motion constants describes the shape of the state-space trajectories. The use of the eleventh motion constant is demonstrated in computing a solution to a two-point boundary-value problem.     

Periodic solutions near a central libration point in the problem of the motion of a star inside an elliptical galaxy

We consider the three-dimensional problem of the motion of a star inside an inhomogeneous rotating elliptical galaxy with a homothetic density distribution. We construct and analyze the periodic solutions near a central libration point by using Lyapunov’s method.     

Three-dimensional regions of stability about the triangular equilibrium points

Within the context of the restricted problem of three bodies, an analytic upper bound on the three-dimensional regions of stability about the triangular equilibrium points is derived for general initial velocity limits and a wide class of bounding regions. This upper bound is illustrated and compared to numerical investigations for two bounding regions using the Earth-Moon mass ratio.     

Stability of equilibrium points in the generalized perturbed restricted three-body problem

This paper studies the existence and stability of equilibrium points under the influence of small perturbations in the Coriolis and the centrifugal forces, together with the non-sphericity of the primaries. The problem is generalized in the sense that the bigger and smaller primaries are respectively triaxial and oblate spheroidal bodies. It is found that the locations of equilibrium points are affected by the non-sphericity of the bodies and the change in the centrifugal force. It is also seen that the triangular points are stable for 0<μ<μ _c and unstable for \(\mu_{c}\le\mu <\frac{1}{2}\), where μ _c is the critical mass parameter depending on the above perturbations, triaxiality and oblateness. It is further observed that collinear points remain unstable.