Coordinates for perturbed keplerian systems with axial symmetry

Abstract

A coordinate system is defined on the phase space of a perturbed Keplerian system after the mean anomaly has been averaged out, for the purpose of explaining how eliminating the longitude of the ascending node reduces the orbital space to a two-dimensional sphere in case the system admits an axial symmetry. Concomitantly, on the submanifold of direct osculating ellipses, the CDM variables are replaced by functions which form the basis of a Poisson algebra isomorphic to the Lie algebra so(3) of the rotation group SO(3); furthermore, in these variables, the doubly reduced phase flow appears like a rotation of the reduced phase space.