English

Orbits of the three-body problem with large potential

Dynamical Systems 2026-03-11 v1

Abstract

Consider the planar three-body problem with masses positive m1,m2,m3m_1,m_2,m_3 position vector q(t)=(q1(t),q2(t),q3(t))R6q(t) = (q_1(t),q_2(t),q_3(t))\in\mathbb{R}^6. Let U(q)=m1m2r12+m1m3r13+m2m3r23U(q) = \frac{m_1m_2}{r_{12}}+\frac{m_1m_3}{r_{13}}+\frac{m_2m_3}{r_{23}} where rij=qiqjr_{ij}=|q_i-q_j|. Assume that the angular momentum is nonzero so that triple collision is impossible and fix any negative energy.. Then given any constant K>0K>0 there are solutions with U(q(t))KU(q(t))\ge K for all tRt\in\mathbb{R}. These solutions will have a single close approach to triple collision. The configuration will always be a tight binary with m1,m2m_1, m_2 close and the distance from the binary to m3m_3 diverging as t±t\rightarrow\pm\infty.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.08833,
  title  = {Orbits of the three-body problem with large potential},
  author = {Richard Moeckel},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.08833},
  year   = {2026}
}
R2 v1 2026-07-01T11:11:02.123Z