Total collison, completely parabolic motions and homothety reduction in the \(n\)-body problem (Q1302451)

The author studies some interesting properties of the \(n\)-body problem. This problem simulates the motion of \(n\) particles under the influence of mutual force fields based, in general, on an inverse square law. As is well known, the two-body problem can be solved analytically, and the three-body problem is sufficiently complicated, so that only the planar restricted case can be simply treated. By considering \(2k\)-homogeneous potentials, the author gives a new look at some important results of Sundman, McGehee and Saari. In particular, using the homothety symmetry, a reduction procedure is given, and the singularities of the reduced vector field are analyzed.