Global bifurcation of planar and spatial periodic solutions from the polygonal relative equilibria for the \(n\)-body problem (Q1941129)

The authors investigate the motion of \(n\) identical masses around a central star. After introducing the group-theoretic concepts, which are needed for the description and exploitation of the symmetric structure, they first study the relative equilibria of the configuration in a plane. These relative equilibria are regular polygons, which rotate around the central body with constant angular velocity. Secondly, they study the bifurcation of periodic solutions from these configurations. For planar periodic solutions the \(n\) masses can either move as they are in a ring configuration, or two polygons of \(n/2\) bodies pulsing each one as a whole. Similarly, there are also two types of spatial motions, one of these is characterized by the simultaneous motion of the bodies and a contrary movement of the central bodies. The other one gives the so-called hip-hop orbits. Since the equations of motion are quite involved and admit a large amount of symmetry, usual normal form calculations would be hardly manageable; therefore the authors use the orthogonal degree theory to calculate the bifurcation points and characterize the bifurcating periodic solutions.