Relative equilibria of the 3-body problem in \(\mathbb{R}^4\) (Q2220257)

The authors investigate relative equilibria of the three-body problem in \(\mathbb{R}^4\). The Hamiltonian is the standard one: \(H = T + V\), where \(T = \frac{1}{2} \sum _{i = 1}^{3} \frac{|p_i|^2}{m_i}\) and \(V = - \sum _{i < j} \frac{m_i m_j}{ |q_i - q_j | }\) where \(m_1, m_2\) and \(m_3\) are the three masses, and \(q_i\) for \(1 = 1,2,3\) are their position vectors in \(\mathbb{R}^4\). Relative equilibria in the three-body problem in \(\mathbb{R}^4\) are equilibria in a certain rotating frame determined by a rotation \(R \in \mathrm{SO}(4)\) with constant angular velocity \(\Omega \in \mathfrak{s} \mathfrak{o} (4)\), so \(R = \exp(\Omega t)\). In two and three dimensions the matrix \(\Omega ^2\) is proportional to the identity, but this is no longer true in four dimensions. A configuration of a relative equilibrium with \(\Omega^2\) not necessarily proportional to the identity is called a balanced configuration. What distinguishes the four-dimensional problem from its three-dimensional counterpart is that the rotational symmetry group is \(\mathrm{SO}(4)\) instead of \(\mathrm{SO}(3)\), so the angular velocity \(\Omega\) and the angular momentum \(L = \sum q_i p_I^T - p_i q_i^T = S\Omega + \Omega S\) are anti-symmetric \(4 \times 4\) matrices, where \(S\) is the inertia tensor of the configuration. This paper describes the families of relative equilibria for the three-body problem in \(\mathbb{R}^4\). The authors note that any motion of the three bodies that has a center of mass at the origin and does not remain in a fixed linear subspace of \(\mathbb{R}^3 \subset \mathbb{R}^4\) has an angular momentum \(L\) of rank 4. They prove that the Hamiltonian is bounded from below and thus has a global minimum on any level set of \(L\) for which the fixed value of \(L\) is of rank 4. One of the main results here is that for any \(k\) defined by \(k = \frac{|P|}{\ell^2 + 2 |P|}\) where \(\ell^2 = \frac{1}{2} \mathrm{Trace}(LL^T)\) and \(P^2 = \det(L)\), there is a globally minimal balanced configuration. Among other results the authors also provide conditions for equilateral and isosceles relative equilibria in \(\mathbb{R}^4\).