Generic finiteness for a class of symmetric planar central configurations of the six-body problem and the six-vortex problem (Q2211279)

This paper considers the existence and finiteness of a particular symmetric type of central configuration, called a cross central configuration, in which four of the bodies lie on a symmetry line in the Newtonian six-body problem and in the six-vortex problem. The first main is there is a proper open set \(B\subset {\mathbb R}^5\) such that if \((m_1,\dots,m_5)\) (\(m_6=m_5\) by the symmetry for the two bodies not on the line of symmetry) belongs to \({\mathbb R}^5 \setminus B\) then the quantity of cross central configurations of the Newtonian six-body problem is a nonzero finite number. The proof of this is based on showing that the algebraic variety determined by the Laura-Andoyer equations has dimension less than or equal to \(5\) which is the dimension of the mass space. This is accomplished by applying the Jacobian criterion and the dimension of fibers theorem to the projection of the algebraic variety to the mutual distances space. The second main result is there is a proper open set \(C\) of \({\mathbb R}^5\) (\(\gamma_6 = \gamma_5\) by symmetry for the two vortexes not on the line of symmetry) such that if \((\gamma_1,\dots,\gamma_5)\in{\mathbb R}^5\setminus C\) then the quantity of cross central configurations of the six-vortex problem is a nonzero finite number. The proof of this follows in a similar way to the proof in the Newtonian case.