The Hamiltonian Dynamics of the Two Gyrostats Problem

The problem of two gyrostats in a central force field is considered. We prove that the Newton-Euler equations of motion are Hamiltonian with respect to a certain non-canonical structure. The system posseses symmetries. Using them we perform the reduction of the number of degrees of freedom. We show that at every stage of the reduction process, equations of motion are Hamiltonian and give explicit forms corresponding to non-canonical Poisson brackets. Finally, we study the case where one of the gyrostats has null gyrostatic momentum and we study the zero and the second order approximation, showing that all equilibria are unstable in the zero order approximation. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.