Abstract
Consider 4 bodies of equal unit masses in space at the vertices of a regular tetrahedron with variable height, interacting under gravitational forces. A topological and dynamical description of the total collision manifold, parabolic orbits of escape, and homoclinic and heteroclinic orbits asymptotic to total collision and infinity arc given. This permits us to give a symbolic dynamics representation of motions.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Devaney, R. (1981). Singularities in classical mechanical systems. In Katok, A. (ed.), Ergodic Theory and Dynamical Systems, Vol. 1, Birkhäuser, Basel, pp. 211–333.
Llibre, J., Martinez, R., and Simó, C. (1985). Tranversality of the invariant manifolds associated to the Lyapunov family of periodic orbits near L 2 in the restricted three-body problem. J. Diff. Eq. 58(1), 104–156.
Llibre, J., and Simó, C. (1995). Characterization of tranversal homothetic solutions in the n-body problem. Arch. Rat. Mech. Anal. 77(2), 189–198.
Martínez, R., and Simó, C. (1988). Qualitative study of the planar isosceles. Celest. Mech. 41, 179–251.
McGehee, R. (1973). A stable manifold theorem for degenerate fixed points with applications to celestial mechanics. J. Diff. Eq. 14, 70–88.
Moeckel, R. (1981). Orbits of the three-body problem which pass infinitely close to triple collision. Am. J. Math. 103(6), 1323–1341.
Moeckel, R. (1987). Spiralling invariant manifolds. J. Diff. Eq. 66(2), 189–207.
Moser, J. (1973). Stable and random motions in dynamical systems. Ann. Math. Stud., Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ.
Simó, C. (1981). Necessary and sufficient conditions for the geometric regularization of singularities. In Proc. IV Congr. Ec. Dif. Apli., Sevilla, España, pp. 193–202.
Susin, A., and Simó, C. 1993. Moduli of conjugacy in the triple collision collinear problem. In International Conference on Differential Equations, Vols. 1 and 2 (Barcelona, 1991), World Scientific, River Edge, NJ, pp. 921–926.
Vidal, C. (1996). O problema tetraedral simétrico de 4-corpos com rotação, Ph.D. thesis, UFPE, Brasil (in Portugese).
Wiggins, S. (1988). Global Bifurcations and Chaos. Analytical Methods, Appl. Math. Sci. Ser., Vol. 37, Springer-Verlag, New York.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
[Supported by CNPq 300 735/95-2 (Brazil) and Conacyt 400200-5-1406PE (México).]
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Delgado, J., Vidal, C. The Tetrahedral 4-Body Problem. Journal of Dynamics and Differential Equations 11, 735–780 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022667613764
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022667613764