Hill Four-Body Problem with Oblate Bodies: An Application to the Sun–Jupiter–Hektor–Skamandrios System

We consider a restricted four-body problem, with a precise hierarchy between the bodies: two larger bodies and a smaller one, all three of oblate shape, and a fourth, infinitesimal body, in the neighborhood of the smaller of the three bodies. The three heavy bodies are assumed to move in a plane under their mutual gravity, and the fourth body to move in the three-dimensional space under the gravitational influence of the three heavy bodies, but without affecting them. We first find that the triangular central configuration of the three heavy oblate bodies is a scalene triangle (rather than an equilateral triangle as in the point mass case). Then, assuming that these three bodies are in such a central configuration, we perform a Hill approximation of the equations of motion describing the dynamics of the infinitesimal body in a neighborhood of the smaller body. Through the use of Hill’s variables and a limiting procedure, this approximation amounts to sending the two larger bodies to infinity. Finally, for the Hill approximation, we find the equilibrium points for the motion of the infinitesimal body and determine their stability. As a motivating example, we identify the three heavy bodies with the Sun, Jupiter, and the Jupiter’s Trojan asteroid Hektor, which are assumed to move in a triangular central configuration. Then, we consider the dynamics of Hektor’s moonlet Skamandrios.

     

A Brief Account on Lagrange’s Algebraic Identity

In Indiscrete Thoughts [18], G.-C. Rota remarked, ??The mystery, as well as the glory of mathematics, lies not so much in the fact that abstract theories do turn out to be useful in solving problems, but, wonder of wonders, in the fact that a theory meant for one type of problem is often the only way of solving problems of entirely different kinds, problems for which the theory was not intended. These coincidences occur so frequently, that they must belong to the essence of mathematics.?? Indeed, it happens often that abstract mathematics leads to concrete applications, and real-life problems constitute a source of inspiration for sophisticated theories. The strong synergy between pure mathematics and its applications advocates for teaching methods that intertwine physical intuition with mathematical abstraction, and recognize the universality of mathematical laws throughout the sciences.     

Covering relations for multidimensional dynamical systems—II

We use a topological technique based on covering relations to prove the existence of chaotic orbits for certain Hamiltonian systems with several degrees of freedom. This paper relies on an earlier work of Zgliczyński and Gidea.     

A General Mechanism of Diffusion in Hamiltonian Systems: Qualitative Results

We present a general mechanism to establish the existence of diffusing orbits in a large class of nearly integrable Hamiltonian systems. Our approach is based on following the “outer dynamics” along homoclinic orbits to a normally hyperbolic invariant manifold. The information on the outer dynamics is encoded by a geometrically defined “scattering map.” We show that for every finite sequence of successive iterations of the scattering map, there exists a true orbit that follows that sequence, provided that the inner dynamics is recurrent. We apply this result to prove the existence of diffusing orbits that cross large gaps in a priori unstable models of arbitrary degrees of freedom, when the unperturbed Hamiltonian is not necessarily convex and the induced inner dynamics is not necessarily a twist map, and the perturbation satisfies explicit conditions that are generic. We also mention several other applications where this mechanism is easy to verify (analytically or numerically), such as the planar elliptic restricted three-body problem and the spatial circular restricted three-body problem. Our method differs, in several crucial aspects, from earlier works. Unlike the well-known “two-dynamics” approach, the method we present here relies on the outer dynamics alone. There are virtually no assumptions on the inner dynamics, such as on existence of its invariant objects (e.g., primary and secondary tori, lower-dimensional hyperbolic tori, and their stable/unstable manifolds, Aubry-Mather sets), which are not used at all. © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Topologically crossing heteroclinic connections to invariant tori

We consider transition tori of Arnold which have topologically crossing heteroclinic connections. We prove the existence of shadowing orbits to a bi-infinite sequence of tori, and of symbolic dynamics near a finite collection of tori. Topologically crossing intersections of stable and unstable manifolds of tori can be found as non-trivial zeroes of certain Melnikov functions. Our treatment relies on an extension of Easton's method of correctly aligned windows due to Zgliczyński.     

Arnold Diffusion,Quantitative Estimates,and Stochastic Behavior in the Three-Body Problem

We consider a class of autonomous Hamiltonian systems subject to small, time-periodic perturbations. When the perturbation parameter is set to zero, the energy of the system is preserved. This is no longer the case when the perturbation parameter is non-zero. We describe a topological method to establish orbits which diffuse in energy for every suitably small perturbation parameter . The method yields quantitative estimates:

• (i) the existence of orbits along which the energy drifts by an amount independent of ε; the time required by such orbits to drift is ;
• (ii) the existence of orbits along which the energy makes chaotic excursions;
• (iii) explicit estimates for the Hausdorff dimension of the set of such chaotic orbits;
• (iv) the existence of orbits along which the time evolution of energy approaches a stopped diffusion process (Brownian motion with drift), as ε tends to 0. For each ε fixed, the set of initial conditions of the orbits that yield the diffusion process has positive Lebesgue measure, and in the limit the measure of these sets approaches 0. Moreover, we can obtain any desired values of the drift and variance for the limiting Brownian motion for appropriate sets of initial conditions.

A key feature of our topological method is that it can be implemented in computer-assisted proofs. We give an application to a concrete model of the planar elliptic restricted three-body problem, on the motion of an infinitesimal body relative to the Neptune-Triton system. © 2021 The Authors. Communications on Pure and Applied Mathematics published by Wiley Periodicals LLC.