Topology and mechanics. II: The planar \(n\)-body problem (Q2541668)

In this paper there are proved new results in the topological theory of the planar \(n\)-body problem of celestial mechanics. It is a continuation of a previous paper of the author [ibid. 10, 305--331 (1970; Zbl 0202.23201)]. The purpose of this paper is to study the bifurcation set, the integral manifolds and the number of relative equilibria of the planar \(n\)-body problem. Most of the notations have been introduced in the paper mentioned above. For the brevity of this review the main results cannot be written down in a very complete manner. The first two theorems give a classification of the integral manifolds (up to diffeomorphism) in the case of angular momentum \(p=0\) and in the case of positive total energy and non-vanishing angular momentum. The description of the integral manifolds for negative total energy needs information about the relative equilibria of the planar \(n\)-body problem. The relative equilibria can be represented by the critical points of the potential energy, restricted to the points \(x\) of the configuration space with \(K(x) = 1\) where \(K\) is given by the kinetic energy, as is shown in theorem C. The bifurcation set of the energy-angular momentum map \(I\) is the union of the critical values of \(I\) and the coordinate axes of \(R\times R\). The critical values of \(I\) can be described by the relative equilibria of the problem. In theorem E the classification of the integral manifolds for negative total energy and nonvanishing angular momentum is reduced to the study of the critical points of the potential energy restricted to the set mentioned above. As a corollary of this the author gets several results on the 3-body problem. At the end, using the methods developed above, the author presents a new proof of a theorem given by \textit{F. R. Moulton} [Ann. Math. (2) 12, 1--17 (1910; JFM 41.0794.02)]: There are exactly \(n!/2\) classes of collinear relative equilibria in the \(n\)-body problem.