Effect of oblateness, perturbations, radiation and varying masses on the stability of equilibrium points in the restricted three-body problem

Abstract

This paper investigates the combined effect of small perturbations ε,ε′ in the Coriolis and centrifugal forces, radiation pressure q _i , and changing oblateness of the primaries A _i (t) (i=1,2) on the stability of equilibrium points in the restricted three body problem in which the primaries is a supergiant eclipsing binary system which consists of a pair of bright oblate stars having the appearance of a giant peanut in space and their masses assumed to vary with time in the absence of reactive forces. The equations of motion are derived and the equilibrium points are obtained. For the autonomized system, it is seen that there are more than a pair of the triangular points as κ→∞; κ being the arbitrary sum of the masses of the primaries. In the case of the collinear points, two additional equilibrium points exist on the line joining the primaries when simultaneously κ+ε′<0 and both primaries are oblate, i.e., 0<α _i ≪1. So there are five collinear equilibrium points in this case. Two non-planar equilibrium points exist for κ>1. Hence, there are at least nine equilibrium points of the system. The stability of these points is explored analytically and numerically. It is seen that the collinear and triangular points are stable with respect to certain conditions controlled by κ while the non-planar equilibrium points are unstable.