Available in electronic format
Available in print format
Transactions of the American Mathematical Society
Transactions of the American Mathematical Society
ISSN 1088-6850(e) ISSN 0002-9947(p)
     

On the distribution of mass in collinear central configurations

Author(s): Peter W. Lindstrom
Journal: Trans. Amer. Math. Soc. 350 (1998), 2487-2523.
MSC (1991): Primary 70F10
Retrieve article in: PDF
This article is available free of charge

Abstract | References | Similar articles | Additional information

Abstract: Moulton's Theorem says that given an ordering of masses, $m_1,m_2,  \dotsc,m_n$, there exists a unique collinear central configuration with center of mass at the origin and moment of inertia equal to 1. This theorem allows us to ask the questions: What is the distribution of mass in this standardized collinear central configuration? What is the behavior of the distribution as $n\to\infty$? In this paper, we define continuous configurations, prove a continuous version of Moulton's Theorem, and then, in the spirit of limit theorems in probability theory, prove that as $n\to\infty$, under rather general conditions, the discrete mass distributions of the standardized collinear central configurations have distribution functions which converge uniformly to the distribution function of the unique continuous standardized collinear central configuration which we determine.


References:

1.
G. Buck, 1991, The collinear central configuration of $n$ equal masses, Celestial Mech. Dynam. Astronom. 51, 305-317. MR 92k:70013

2.
L. Euler, 1767, De moto recilineo trium corporum se mutuo attahentium, Novi Comm. Acad. Sci. Imp. Petrop. 11, 144-151.

3.
P. W. Lindstrom, 1996, Limiting mass distributions of minimal potential central configurations, Hamiltonian Dynamics and Celestial Mechanics, Contemporary Mathematics, vol. 198, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, RI, pp. 109-129. MR 97g:70015

4.
K. R. Meyer and G. R. Hall, 1992, Introduction to Hamiltonian Dynamical Systems and the $N$-Body Problem, Springer-Verlag. MR 93b:70002

5.
R. Moeckel, 1990, On central configurations, Math. Z. 205, 499-517. MR 92b:70012

6.
R. Moeckel, Some relative equilibria of $n$ equal masses, $n=4,5,6,7,8$, unpublished.

7.
F. R. Moulton, 1910, The straight line solutions of the problem of $N$ bodies, Ann. Math., II. Ser. 12, 1-17.

8.
D. G. Saari, 1980, On the role and properties of $n$ body central configurations, Celestial Mech. 21, 9-20. MR 81a:70016


Similar Articles:

Retrieve articles in Transactions of the American Mathematical Society with MSC (1991): 70F10

Retrieve articles in all Journals with MSC (1991): 70F10


Additional Information:

Peter W. Lindstrom
Affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Saint Anselm College, Manchester, New Hampshire 03102

DOI: 10.1090/S0002-9947-98-01964-3
PII: S 0002-9947(98)01964-3
Received by editor(s): October 1, 1995
Received by editor(s) in revised form: September 20, 1996
Copyright of article: Copyright 1998, American Mathematical Society


  AMS Website Logo Small Comments: webmaster@ams.org
© Copyright 2009, American Mathematical Society
Privacy Statement
Search the AMSPowered by Google