The collinear three-body problem with negative energy (Q1895092)

The authors consider the collinear three-body problem, having two degrees of freedom with total energy as an integral. In the case of the negative energy, the geometry of the global phase space is studied. A set of adequate transformations allows to create fictious boundaries in order to make the phase space compact. Initially, the binary collisions are not regularized. Then, one of the binary collisions (between \(m_2\) and \(m_3\) ) is regularized, and the phase structure of this ``half-regularized'' system is analyzed. Finally, the second binary collision (between \(m_1\) and \(m_2\)) is regularized, and the corresponding phase structure is again analyzed. In this manner, an intuitive picture of the phase flow of the collinear three-body problem is obtained.