Dynamics of the collinear one-bumper two-body problem (Q1377537)

The problem presented is a model related to the collinear three-body problem which is itself a special case of the full three-body problem where point masses interact under inverse square gravitation. The cause of complicated behavior in the three-body problem lays in the fact that solutions can pass near triple collision. In 1974 \textit{R. McGehee} [Invent. Math. 27, 191-227 (1974; Zbl 0297.70011)] introduced a transformation which allows him to extend the phase space to triple collision. In 1995 \textit{K. Meyer} and \textit{Q. Wang} [J. Differ. Equations 119, No. 2, 284-309 (1995; Zbl 0857.70008)] showed the existence of symbolic systems which describe the dynamics. In an effort to study the global effect on the dynamics of the collinear three-body problem due to the existence of orbits which pass near triple collision this article presents a special model which is a caricature of the collinear three-body problem. The goal of the author is to describe the dynamic of this model. The main theorem, that the set of the sequences of allowed bounces can be described by a sub-shift of finite type, suggests that a similar result might be possible in the collinear three-body problem.