Fast procedure solving universal Kepler's equation (Q1573560)

This paper is concerned with the solution of Kepler's equation which appears in the two-body problem of celestial mechanics. First of all, in order to deal with three different types of Kepler's equations which appear in elliptic, parabolic and hyperbolic motions, the author considers the so-called universal Kepler's equation which is expressed in terms of Stumpff's function \( c_3(z)\) of degree 3 [\textit{E. L. Stiefel} and \textit{G. Scheifele}, Linear and regular celestial mechanics. Die Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften. Band 174. Berlin-Heidelberg-New York: Springer-Verlag. IX (1971; Zbl 0226.70005)]. Further, to obtain meaningful numerical comparisons, Kepler's equation is written in a non-dimensional form. Under these assumptions the universal Kepler's equation becomes \( G+\kappa U_3 (G; \lambda)=L, \) where \(G\) is the unknown, \( \lambda \) and \( \kappa \) are constants given in terms of eccentricity \(e\) by \( \lambda=(1-e)/(1+e)\), \(\kappa=e / (1+e)\), \( L=\nu t \) is a linear function of time, and \( U_3 (G; \lambda)=G^3 c_3 (\lambda G^2) \). For effective solution of this equation the author proposes different algorithms depending on the eccentricity. More specifically, he considers five cases: (1) the case of small solution; (2) the elliptic case; (3) the parabolic case; (4) the hyperbolic case; (5) the nearly parabolic case. Different procedures are proposed for each case, and a bypass criterion is employed to select the proper case. Finally, the results of some numerical experiments are presented to show that the proposed technique is faster than standard Newton's and Shepperd's methods.