On symmetrical planetary corotations

Exact corotations are equilibrium points in the phase space of the asteroidal elliptic restricted problem of three bodies averaged over the synodic period, at a mean-motions resonance. If the resonant critical angle is =(p+q) _jup –p–q, exact corotations are double resonant motions defined by the conditionsd/dt=0 andd(– _jup )/dt=0. The first condition is characteristic of the periods resonance(p + q) : p and the second one is a secular resonance equivalent to that usually known as thev ₅-resonance. This paper presents the symmetric solutions =0 (mod ), = _jup (mod ). Corotations have a coherence property which is unique in non-collisional Celestial Mechanics: An elementary calculation shows that, in the neighbourhood of these solutions, the motions cluster aroundp independent longitude values and are, in each cluster, as close together as and are close to the equilibrium values.