Classification of four-body central configurations with three equal masses

It is known that a central configuration of the planar four body problem consisting of three particles of equal mass possesses a symmetry if the configuration is convex or is concave with the unequal mass in the interior. We use analytic methods to show that besides the family of equilateral triangle configurations, there are exactly one family of concave and one family of convex central configurations, which completely classifies such central configurations.     

Convex central configurations for the n-body problem

We give a simple proof of a classical result of MacMillan and Bartky (Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 34 (1932) 838) which states that, for any four positive masses and any assigned order, there is a convex planar central configuration. Moreover, we show that the central configurations we find correspond to local minima of the potential function with fixed moment of inertia. This allows us to show that there are at least six local minimum central configurations for the planar four-body problem. We also show that for any assigned order of five masses, there is at least one convex spatial central configuration of local minimum type. Our method also applies to some other cases.     

The pyramidal configurations of N+1 bodies cannot rotate

For the (N+1)-body problem, we assume that N bodies are at the vertices of a unit regular polygon and the (N+1)st body is along the vertical line normal to the plane formed by the former N bodies. If N bodies rotate at the unit circle and the (N+1)st body oscillates along the vertical line of the plane formed by the former N bodies and passing through the geometrical center, then we prove that the (N+1)st body must locate at the geometrical center of unit regular polygon.     

The central configurations of four masses x, −x, y, −y

The configuration of a homothetic motion in the N-body problem is called a central configuration. In this paper, we prove that there are exactly three planar non-collinear central configurations for masses x, −x, y, −y with x≠y (a parallelogram and two trapezoids) and two planar non-collinear central configurations for masses x, −x, x, −x (two diamonds). Except the case studied here, the only known case where the four-body central configurations with non-vanishing masses can be listed is the case with equal masses (A. Albouy, 1995-1996), which requires the use of a symbolic computation program. Thanks to a lemma used in the proof of our result, we also show that a co-circular four-body central configuration has non-vanishing total mass or vanishing multiplier.     

Central configurations consist of two layer twisted regular polygons

In this paper, we study the existence of a special twisted regular polygonal central configuration in R₃.     

Spatial bi-stacked central configurations formed by two dual regular polyhedra

In this paper we prove the existence of two new families of spatial stacked central configurations, one consisting of eight equal masses on the vertices of a cube and six equal masses on the vertices of a regular octahedron, and the other one consisting of twenty masses at the vertices of a regular dodecahedron and twelve masses at the vertices of a regular icosahedron. The masses on the two different polyhedra are in general different. We note that the cube and the octahedron, the dodecahedron and the icosahedron are dual regular polyhedra. The tetrahedron is itself dual. There are also spatial stacked central configurations formed by two tetrahedra, one and its dual.     

The golden ratio and super central configurations of the n-body problem

In this paper, we consider the problem of central configurations of the n-body problem with the general homogeneous potential 1/rα. A configuration q=(q₁,q₂,…,qn) is called a super central configuration if there exists a positive mass vector m=(m₁,…,mn) such that q is a central configuration for m with mi attached to qi and q is also a central configuration for m^′, where m^′≠m and m^′ is a permutation of m. The main discovery in this paper is that super central configurations of the n-body problem have surprising connections with the golden ratio φ. Let r be the ratio of the collinear three-body problem with the ordered positions q₁, q₂, q₃ on a line. q is a super central configuration if and only if 1/r₁(α)<r<r₁(α) and r≠1, where r₁(α)>1 is a continuous function such that , the golden ratio. The existence and classification of super central configurations are established in the collinear three-body problem with general homogeneous potential 1/rα. Super central configurations play an important role in counting the number of central configurations for a given mass vector which may decrease the number of central configurations under geometric equivalence.     

A continuum of periodic solutions to the planar four-body problem with two pairs of equal masses

In this paper, we apply the variational method with Structural Prescribed Boundary Conditions (SPBC) to prove the existence of periodic and quasi-periodic solutions for the planar four-body problem with two pairs of equal masses $m_1=m_3$ and $m_2=m_4$. A path $q(t)$ on $[0,T]$ satisfies the SPBC if the boundaries $q(0)\in \mathbf{A}$ and $q(T)\in \mathbf{B}$, where A and B are two structural configuration spaces in ${({\mathbf{R}}^2)}^4$ and they depend on a rotation angle $\theta \in (0,2\pi )$ and the mass ratio $\mu =\frac{m_2}{m_1}\in {\mathbf{R}}^{+}$.We show that there is a region $\mathrm{\Omega }?(0,2\pi )\times R^{+}$ such that there exists at least one local minimizer of the Lagrangian action functional on the path space satisfying the SPBC $\{q(t)\in H^1([0,T],{({\mathbf{R}}^2)}^4)|q(0)\in \mathbf{A},q(T)\in \mathbf{B}\}$ for any $(\theta ,\mu )\in \mathrm{\Omega }$. The corresponding minimizing path of the minimizer can be extended to a non-homographic periodic solution if θ is commensurable with π or a quasi-periodic solution if θ is not commensurable with π. In the variational method with the SPBC, we only impose constraints on the boundary and we do not impose any symmetry constraint on solutions. Instead, we prove that our solutions that are extended from the initial minimizing paths possess certain symmetries.The periodic solutions can be further classified as simple choreographic solutions, double choreographic solutions and non-choreographic solutions. Among the many stable simple choreographic orbits, the most extraordinary one is the stable star pentagon choreographic solution when $(\theta ,\mu )=(\frac{4\pi }{5},1)$. Remarkably the unequal-mass variants of the stable star pentagon are just as stable as the equal mass choreographies.     

Transitive decomposition of symmetry groups for the n-body problem

Periodic and quasi-periodic solutions of the n-body problem are critical points of the action functional constrained to the Sobolev space of symmetric loops. Variational methods yield collisionless orbits provided the group of symmetries fulfills certain conditions (such as the rotating circle property). Here we generalize such conditions to more general group types and show how to constructively classify all groups satisfying such hypothesis, by a decomposition into irreducible transitive components. As examples we show approximate trajectories of some of the resulting symmetric minimizers.     

On the modulus algorithm for the linear complementarity problem

Concerning three subclasses of P-matrices the modulus algorithm and the projected successive overrelaxation (PSOR) method solving the linear complementarity problem are compared to each other with respect to convergence. It is shown that the modulus algorithm is convergent for all three subclasses whereas the convergence of the PSOR method is only guaranteed for two of them.     

Fast technique for solving the <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-body problem in flow simulation by vortex methods

A fast algorithm is proposed for solving the N-body problem arising in flow simulation when the flow is represented as a set of many interacting vortex elements. The algorithm is used to compute the flow over a circular cylinder at high Reynolds numbers.     

On the Cauchy problem for the evolution p-Laplacian equations with gradient term and source

In this paper, the authors study the equation ut=div(|Du|^p−2Du)+|u|^q−1u−λl|Du| in RN with p>2. We first prove that for 1?l?p−1, the solution exists at least for a short time; then for , the existence and nonexistence of global (in time) solutions are studied in various situations.     

The number of planar central configurations for the -body problem is finite when mass positions are fixed

In the -body problem a central configuration is formed when the position vector of each particle with respect to the center of mass is a common scalar multiple of its acceleration vector. Lindstrom showed for and for 4$"> that if masses are located at fixed points in the plane, then there are only a finite number of ways to position the remaining th mass in such a way that they define a central configuration. Lindstrom leaves open the case . In this paper we prove the case using as variables the mutual distances between the particles.

     

Nested regular polygon solutions for planar 2<Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis>-body problems

In this paper we study the necessary conditions for the masses of the nested regular polygon solutions of the planar2N-body problem.We prove that the masses at the vertices of each regular polygon must be equal to each other     

Existence of a lower bound for the distance between point masses of relative equilibria in spaces of constant curvature

We prove that if for the curved n-body problem the masses are given, the minimum distance between the point masses of a specific type of relative equilibrium solution to that problem has a universal lower bound that is not equal to zero. We furthermore prove that the set of all such relative equilibria is compact. This class of relative equilibria includes all relative equilibria of the curved n  -body problem in H²${\mathbb{H}}^2$ and a significant subset of the relative equilibria for S²${\mathbb{S}}^2$, S³${\mathbb{S}}^3$ and H³${\mathbb{H}}^3$.     

On a problem by Beidar concerning the central closure

We give an example of a prime ring with zero center such that its central closure is a simple ring with an identity element. It solves a problem posed by Beidar.     

Linear Stability of the Elliptic Lagrangian Triangle Solutions in the Three-Body Problem

This paper concerns the linear stability of the well-known periodic orbits of Lagrange in the three-body problem. Given any three masses, there exists a family of periodic solutions for which each body is at the vertex of an equilateral triangle and travels along an elliptic Kepler orbit. Reductions are performed to derive equations which determine the linear stability of the periodic solutions. These equations depend on two parameters - the eccentricity e of the orbit and the mass parameter β=27(m₁m₂+m₁m₃+m₂m₃)/(m₁+m₂+m₃)². A combination of numerical and analytic methods is used to find the regions of stability in the βe-plane. In particular, using perturbation techniques it is rigorously proven that there are mass values where the truly elliptic orbits are linearly stable even though the circular orbits are not.