Periodic motion in non-axially symmetric galaxies (Q2422360)

The authors study the periodic solutions in a model describing the dynamics of a galaxy which is associated to the Hamiltonian \[ H=\frac12(p_X^2+p_Y^2+p_Z^2)-\frac{1}{\sqrt{X^2+Y^2+(a+\sqrt{b^2+Z^2})^2}} \] with \(a\), \(b\) positive parameters related to the geometry of the galaxy. By introducing a small parameter, scaling the variables \((X,Y,Z,p_X,p_Y,p_Z)=\sqrt\varepsilon(x,y,z,p_x,p_y,p_z)\) and taking the terms up to \(\varepsilon^2\), one obtains a new system with a Hamiltonian \(\mathcal{H}(\varepsilon)\) which is a small perturbation of \(\mathcal{H}(0)\) and can be studied by applying an averaging theory of order one. The main results in the paper state that if the quantity \(\sqrt{1+a/b}\) is irrational, then for small \(\varepsilon\), at any level \(\mathcal{H}=h>0\) there is a periodic solution of period \(2\pi(a+b)^{3/2}\) tending to \((\sqrt{2(a+b)^3h},0,0,0,0,0)\) as \(\varepsilon\to 0\) (and, respectively, there is a periodic solution of period \(2\pi(a+b)\sqrt{b}\) tending to \((0,0,(a+b)\sqrt{b},0,0,0)\) ).