On Asymmetric Periodic Solutions of the Plane Restricted Problem of Three Bodies, and Bifurcations of Families

Extract

Previous work on the plane circular restricted problem of three bodies (Message 1953, 1959, 1970, and Fragakis 1973) has shown the existence, in association with each of the commensurabilities 2:1 and 3:1 of the orbital periods, of a pair of families of asymmetric periodic solutions, branching from the stable series of symmetric periodic solutions of Poincaré’s second sort associated with that commensurability. (Each solution of either family is the mirror image, in the line of the two finite bodies, of a member of the other family of solutions associated with the commensurability.) The stability is transferred at the bifurcation to the two series of asymmetric orbits, each of which is therefore stable. Recent numerical integrations carried out by one of us (P.J.M.) have found such asymmetric periodic orbits associated also with the 4:1 commensurability, and quantities describing orbits of one of the two series are given in Table 1, showing the run of such orbits up to a second bifurcation with the same series of symmetric periodic orbits from which it sprang. Quantities describing some members of this series of symmetric orbits are given in Table 2. It is seen that stability is transferred back to the symmetric series at the second bifurcation. (The unit of distance is the distance between the two finite bodies, the unit of speed is the speed, of their relative motion, and the initial conditions given (x_°, ẋ_°, ẏ_°) are for a crossing of the line of the two finite bodies, this line being taken as axis of “x” in a rotating Cartesian frame in the usual way. The mean values of the major semi-axis and eccentricity are denoted by ā and ē, respectively, C is Jacobi’s constant, and ȳ₂ is the mean value of the critical argument ȳ² = 4λ – λ′ – 3ω. The mass ratio used is 0.000954927, T is the period of the solution in units of the period of the motion of the two finite bodies, and 2π c/T is the non-zero characteristic exponent.)