The high-eccentricity libration theory revisited (Q1905350)

Using the local asymmetric expansion of the disturbing function for the planar elliptic restricted three-body problem, the authors develop a small-amplitude libration theory. They review the laws that characterize the mean motion resonances of asteroids with Jupiter and formulate some new laws, namely: 1) the law of structure, which establishes for the each resonance a relation between the eccentricity and the semi-major axis of the asteroid orbit; 2) the law of periods, which allows to find the libration period of free oscillations for stable solutions; 3) the law of the second forced mode, giving the amplitude of the second force mode. In particular, the equations for the second forced mode are reformulated, and some new interpretations of this component are discussed. The study is completed with an approximate analytical description of the small amplitude librations. To confirm the theoretical results, the predictions are compared with numerical experiments.