THE PHASE SPACE STRUCTURE OF THE EXTENDED SITNIKOV-PROBLEM

In this article we treat the 'Extended Sitnikov Problem' where three bodies of equal masses stay always in the Sitnikov configuration. One of the bodies is confined to a motion perpendicular to the instantaneous plane of motion of the two other bodies (called the primaries), which are always equally far away from the barycenter of the system (and from the third body). In contrary to the Sitnikov Problem with one mass less body the primaries are not moving on Keplerian orbits. After a qualitative analysis of possible motions in the 'Extended Sitnikov Problem' we explore the structure of phase space with the aid of properly chosen surfaces of section. It turns out that for very small energies H the motion is possible only in small region of phase space and only thin layers of chaos appear in this region of mostly regular motion. We have chosen the plane ( ) as surface of section, where r is the distance between the primaries; we plot the respective points when the three bodies are 'aligned'. The fixed point which corresponds to the 1 : 2 resonant orbit between the primaries' period and the period of motion of the third mass is in the middle of the region of motion. For low energies this fixed point is stable, then for an increased value of the energy splits into an unstable and two stable fixed points. The unstable fixed point splits again for larger energies into a stable and two unstable ones. For energies close toH = 0 the stable center splits one more time into an unstable and two stable ones. With increasing energy more and more of the phase space is filled with chaotic orbits with very long intermediate time intervals in between two crossings of the surface of section. We also checked the rotation numbers for some specific orbits. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

An analytical approach to small amplitude solutions of the extended nearly circular Sitnikov problem

The model of extended Sitnikov Problem contains two equally heavy bodies of mass m moving on two symmetrical orbits w.r.t the centre of gravity. A third body of equal mass m moves along a line z perpendicular to the primaries plane, intersecting it at the centre of gravity. For sufficiently small distance from the primaries plane the third body describes an oscillatory motion around it. The motion of the three bodies is described by a coupled system of second order differential equations for the radial distance of the primaries r and the third mass oscillation z. This problem which is dealt with for zero initial eccentricity of the primaries motion, is generally non integrable and therefore represents an interesting dynamical system for advanced perturbative methods. In the present paper we use an original method of rewriting the coupled system of equations as a function iteration in such a way as to decouple the two equations at any iteration step. The decoupled equations are then solved by classical perturbation methods. A prove of local convergence of the function iteration method is given and the iterations are carried out to order 1 in r and to order 2 in z. For small values of the initial oscillation amplitude of the third mass we obtain results in very good agreement to numerically obtained solutions.     

Region of motion in the Sitnikov four-body problem when the fourth mass is finite

This article deals with the region of motion in the Sitnikov four-body problem where three bodies (called primaries) of equal masses fixed at the vertices of an equilateral triangle. Fourth mass which is finite confined to moves only along a line perpendicular to the instantaneous plane of the motions of the primaries. Contrary to the Sitnikov problem with one massless body the primaries are moving in non-Keplerian orbits about their centre of mass. It is investigated that for very small range of energy h the motion is possible only in small region of phase space. Condition of bounded motions has been derived. We have explored the structure of phase space with the help of properly chosen surfaces of section. Poincarè surfaces of section for the energy range ?0.480≤h≤?0.345 have been computed. We have chosen the plane (q ₁,p ₁) as surface of section, with q ₁ is the distance of a primary from the centre of mass. We plot the respective points when the fourth body crosses the plane q ₂=0. For low energy the central fixed point is stable but for higher value of energy splits in to an unstable and two stable fixed points. The central unstable fixed point once again splits for higher energy into a stable and three unstable fixed points. It is found that at h=?0.345 the whole phase space is filled with chaotic orbits.     

Spatial restricted rhomboidal five-body problem and horizontal stability of its periodic solutions

The spatial restricted rhomboidal five-body problem, or shortly, SRRFBP, is a five body problem in which four positive masses, called the primaries, move two by two in coplanar circular motions with the center of mass fixed at the origin such that their configuration is always a rhombus, the fifth mass being negligible and not influencing the motion of the four primaries. The Hamiltonian function that governs the motion of the fifth mass is derived and has three degrees of freedom depending periodically on time. Using a synodical system of coordinates, we fix the primaries in order to eliminate the time dependence. With the help of the Hamiltonian structure, we characterize the regions of possible motion. The vertical $z$ axis is invariant and we study what we call the rhomboidal Sitnikov problem. Unlike the classical Sitnikov problem, no chaos exists and the behavior of the fifth mass is quite predictable, periodic solutions of arbitrary long periods are shown to exist and we study numerically their linear horizontal stability.     

Straight-line oscillations generating three-dimensional motions in the photogravitational restricted three-body problem

The Sitnikov configuration is a special case of the restricted three-body problem where the two primaries are of equal masses and the third body of a negligible mass moves along a straight line perpendicular to the orbital plane of the primaries and passes through their center of mass. It may serve as a toy model in dynamical astronomy, and can be used to study the three-dimensional orbits in more applicable cases of the classical three-body problem. The present paper concerns the straight-line oscillations of the Sitnikov family of the photogravitational circular restricted three-body problem as well as the associated families of three-dimensional periodic orbits. From the stability analysis of the Sitnikov family and by using appropriate correctors we have computed accurately 49 critical orbits at which families of 3D periodic orbits of the same period bifurcate. All these families have been computed in both cases of equal and non-equal primaries, and consist entirely of unstable orbits. They all terminate with coplanar periodic orbits. We have also found 35 critical orbits at which period doubling bifurcations occur. Several families of 3D periodic orbits bifurcating at these critical Sitnikov orbits have also been given. These families contain stable parts and close upon themselves containing no coplanar orbits.     

Elliptic Sitnikov five-body problem under radiation pressure

We consider the square configuration of photo-gravitational elliptic restricted five-body problem and study the Sitnikov motions. The four radiating primaries are of equal mass placed at the vertices of square and the fifth body having negligible mass performs oscillations along a straight line perpendicular to the orbital plane of the primaries. The motion of the fifth body is called vertical periodic motion and the main aim of this paper is to study the effect of radiation pressure on these periodic motions in the linear approximation. Moreover, the effects of radiation pressure on the motion of fifth body have been examined with the help of Poincare surfaces of section. By escalating the radiation pressure, surrounding periodic tubes and islands disappear and chaotic motion occurs near the hyperbolic points. Further, by escalating the radiation pressure, the main stochastic region joins the escaping one.     

Sitnikov five-body problem with combined effects of radiation pressure and oblateness

We study the motion of negligible mass in the frame work of Sitnikov five-body problem where four equal oblate spheroids known as primaries symmetrical in all respect are placed at the vertices of square. These primaries are also considered as source of radiations moving in a circular orbit around their common center of mass. The fifth negligible mass performs oscillations along z-axis which is perpendicular to the orbital plane of motion of the primaries and passes through the center of mass of the primaries. Under the combined effects of radiation pressure and oblateness, we have developed the series solution by the Lindstedt-Poincare technique and established averaged Hamiltonians by applying the Van der Pol transformation and averaging technique of Guckenheimer and Holmes (1983). The orbits such as regular, periodic, quasi-periodic, chaotic, or stochastic have been examined with the help of Poincare surfaces of section.     

Sitnikov restricted four-body problem with radiation pressure

An analytical study of the elliptic Sitnikov restricted four-body problem when all the primaries as source of same radiation pressure is presented. We find a solution, which is valid for small bounded oscillations in case of moderate eccentricity of the primary. We have linearized the equation of motion to obtain the Hill’s type equation. Using the Courant and Snyder transformation, Hill’s equation transformed into harmonic oscillator type equation. We have used the Lindstedt-Poincare perturbation method and again we have applied the Courant and Snyder transformation to obtain the final result.     

Periodic orbits and bifurcations in the Sitnikov four-body problem when all primaries are oblate

We study the motions of an infinitesimal mass in the Sitnikov four-body problem in which three equal oblate spheroids (called primaries) symmetrical in all respect, are placed at the vertices of an equilateral triangle. These primaries are moving in circular orbits around their common center of mass. The fourth infinitesimal mass is moving along a line perpendicular to the plane of motion of the primaries and passing through the center of mass of the primaries. A relation between the oblateness-parameter ‘A’ and the increased sides ‘ε’ of the equilateral triangle during the motion is established. We confine our attention to one particular value of oblateness-parameter A=0.003. Only one stability region and 12 critical periodic orbits are found from which new three-dimensional families of symmetric periodic orbits bifurcate. 3-D families of symmetric periodic orbits, bifurcating from the 12 corresponding critical periodic orbits are determined. For A=0.005, observation shows that the stability region is wider than for A=0.003.     

An approximate integral and solution for eccentric planetary type orbits in the restricted problem of three bodies

The circular restricted problem of three bodies is investigated analytically with respect to the problem of deriving a second integral of motion besides the well known Jacobian Integral. The second integral is searched for as a correction the angular momentum integral valid in the two body case. A partial differential equation equivalent to the problem is derived and solved approximately by an asymptotic Fourier method assuming either sufficiently small values for the dimensionless mass parameter or sufficiently large distances from the barycentre. The solution of the partial equation then leads to a function of the coordinates, velocities and time being nearly constant, which means that its variation with time is about 40–300 times less than that of the pure angular momentum. By averaging over the remaining fluctuating part of the quasi-integral we are able to integrate the first order equations using a renormalization transformation. This leads to an explicit expression for the approximate solution of the circular problem which describes the motion of the third body orbiting both primaries with nonvanishing initial eccentricity (eccentric planetary type orbits). One of the main results is an explicit formula for the frequency of the perihelion motion of the third body which depends on the mass parameter, the initial distance of the third body from the barycentre and the initial eccentricity. Finally we study orbits of the P-Type, being defined as solutions of the restricted problem with circular initial conditions (vanishing initial eccentricity).     

Periodic orbits and bifurcations in the Sitnikov four-body problem

We study the existence, linear stability and bifurcations of what we call the Sitnikov family of straight line periodic orbits in the case of the restricted four-body problem, where the three equal mass primary bodies are rotating on a circle and the fourth (small body) is moving in the direction vertical to the center mass of the other three. In contrast to the restricted three-body Sitnikov problem, where the Sitnikov family has infinitely many stability intervals (hence infinitely many Sitnikov critical orbits), as the “family parameter” ż₀ varies within a finite interval (while z ₀ tends to infinity), in the four-body problem this family has only one stability interval and only twelve 3-dimensional (3D) families of symmetric periodic orbits exist which bifurcate from twelve corresponding critical Sitnikov periodic orbits. We also calculate the evolution of the characteristic curves of these 3D branch-families and determine their stability. More importantly, we study the phase space dynamics in the vicinity of these orbits in two ways: First, we use the SALI index to investigate the extent of bounded motion of the small particle off the z-axis along its interval of stable Sitnikov orbits, and secondly, through suitably chosen Poincaré maps, we chart the motion near one of the 3D families of plane-symmetric periodic orbits. Our study reveals in both cases a fascinating structure of ordered motion surrounded by “sticky” and chaotic orbits as well as orbits which rapidly escape to infinity.     

Some Equilibrium of the Restricted Three-Body Problem with Axial Symmetric Primaries and a Gyrostat as Infinitesimal Mass

The restricted three-body problem is reconsidered by replacing the point-like primaries of the classical problem by a pair of axisymmetric rigid bodies which have a plane of symmetry perpendicular to their axes, and the infinitesimal mass by a gyrostat. The conditions for the circular motion of the primaries around their center of mass are stated and they yield the classification of all possible orientations of these bodies into four groups according to the value of their angular velocity. Then the equations of motion of the gyrostat are derived and solved for the equilibrium configurations of the system.     

The stability of vertical motion in the N-body circular Sitnikov problem

We present results about the stability of vertical motion and its bifurcations into families of 3-dimensional (3D) periodic orbits in the Sitnikov restricted N-body problem. In particular, we consider ν = N ? 1 equal mass primary bodies which rotate on a circle, while the Nth body (of negligible mass) moves perpendicularly to the plane of the primaries. Thus, we extend previous work on the 4-body Sitnikov problem to the N-body case, with N = 5, 9, 15, 25 and beyond. We find, for all cases we have considered with N ≥ 4, that the Sitnikov family has only one stability interval (on the z-axis), unlike the N = 3 case where there is an infinity of such intervals. We also show that for N = 5, 9, 15, 25 there are, respectively, 14, 16, 18, 20 critical Sitnikov periodic orbits from which 3D families (no longer rectilinear) bifurcate. We have also studied the physically interesting question of the extent of bounded dynamics away from the z-axis, taking initial conditions on x, y planes, at constant z(0) = z ₀ values, where z ₀ lies within the interval of stable rectilinear motions. We performed a similar study of the dynamics near some members of 3D families of periodic solutions and found, on suitably chosen Poincaré surfaces of section, “islands” of ordered motion, while away from them most orbits become chaotic and eventually escape to infinity. Finally, we solve the equations of motion of a small mass in the presence of a uniform rotating ring. Studying the stability of the vertical orbits in that case, we again discover a single stability interval, which, as N grows, tends to coincide with the stability interval of the N-body problem, when the values of the density and radius of the ring equal those of the corresponding system of N ? 1 primary masses.     

Hill stability of the planar three-body problem: General and restricted cases

The equations of motion of the planar three-body problem split into two parts, called an external part and an internal part. When the third mass approaches zero, the first part tends to the equations of the Kepler motion of the primaries and the second part to the equations of motion of the restricted problem.We discuss the Hill stability from these equations of motion and the energy integral. In particular, the Jacobi integral for the circular restricted problem is seen as an infinitesimal-mass-order term of the Sundman function in this context.     

Out-of-plane equilibrium points and stability in the generalised photogravitational restricted three body problem

The restricted three body problem is generalised to include the effects of an inverse square distance radiation pressure force on the infinitesimal mass due to the primaries, which are both radiating. In this paper we investigate the stability of out-of-plane equilibrium points, based on equations in variations. We have found the characteristic equation for the complex normal frequencies which is a sixth order polynomial. Thus we conclude that out-of-plane equilibrium points are unstable due to positive real part in complex roots.     

The Sitnikov family and the associated families of 3D periodic orbits in the photogravitational RTBP with oblateness

We consider the photogravitational restricted three-body problem with oblateness and study the Sitnikov motions. The family of straight line oscillations exists only in the case where the primaries are of equal masses as in the classical Sitnikov problem and have the same oblateness coefficients and radiation factors. A perturbation method based on Floquet theory is applied in order to study the stability of the motion and critical orbits are determined numerically at which families of three-dimensional periodic orbits of the same or double period bifurcate. Many of these families are computed.     

Circular restricted three-body problem when both the primaries are heterogeneous spheroid of three layers and infinitesimal body varies its mass

The circular restricted three-body problem, where two primaries are taken as heterogeneous oblate spheroid with three layers of different densities and infinitesimal body varies its mass according to the Jeans law, has been studied. The system of equations of motion have been evaluated by using the Jeans law and hence the Jacobi integral has been determined. With the help of system of equations of motion, we have plotted the equilibrium points in different planes (in-plane and out-of planes), zero velocity curves, regions of possible motion, surfaces (zero-velocity surfaces with projections and Poincaré surfaces of section) and the basins of convergence with the variation of mass parameter. Finally, we have examined the stability of the equilibrium points with the help of Meshcherskii space–time inverse transformation of the above said model and revealed that all the equilibrium points are unstable.     

Periodic solution of the nonlinear Sitnikov restricted three-body problem

The objective of this paper is to find periodic solutions of the circular Sitnikov problem by the multiple scales method which is used to remove the secular terms and find the periodic approximated solutions in closed forms. Comparisons among a numerical solution (NS), the first approximated solution (FA) and the second approximated solution (SA) via multiple scales method are investigated graphically under different initial conditions. We observe that the initial conditions play a vital role in the numerical and approximated solutions behaviour. The obtained motion is periodic, but the difference of its amplitude is directly proportional with the initial conditions. We prove that the obtained motion by the numerical or the second approximated solutions is a regular and periodic, when the infinitesimal body starts its motion from a nearer position to the common center of primaries. Otherwise when the start point distance of motion is far from this center, the numerical solution may not be represent a periodic motion for along time, while the second approximated solution may present a chaotic motion, however it is always periodic all time. But the obtained motion by the first approximated solution is periodic and has regularity in its periodicity all time. Finally we remark that the provided solutions by multiple scales methods reflect the true motion of the Sitnikov restricted three–body problem, and the second approximation has more accuracy than the first approximation. Moreover the solutions of multiple scales technique are more realistic than the numerical solution because there is always a warranty that the motion is periodic all time.     

Infinitesimal Orbits Around the Libration Points in the Elliptic Restricted Three Body Problem

The objective of the present work is to develope explicit analytical expressions for the small amplitude orbits of the infinitesimal mass about the equilibrium points in the elliptic restricted three body problem. To handle this dynamical problem, the Hamiltonian for the elliptic problem is formed with the true anomaly and then with the eccentric anomaly as independent variables. The origin is then transformed to a fixed point and the Hamiltonian is developed up to O(4) in the eccentricity, e, (which plays the role of the small parameter of the problem) of the primaries. The integration of the model problem under consideration is undertaken by means of a perturbation technique based on Lie series developments, which leads to the solution of the canonical equations of motion.