English

Stability of equilibria for the $\mathfrak{so}(4)$ free rigid body

Dynamical Systems 2012-01-20 v5

Abstract

The stability for all generic equilibria of the Lie-Poisson dynamics of the so(4)\mathfrak{so}(4) rigid body dynamics is completely determined. It is shown that for the generalized rigid body certain Cartan subalgebras (called of coordinate type) of so(n)\mathfrak{so}(n) are equilibrium points for the rigid body dynamics. In the case of so(4)\mathfrak{so}(4) there are three coordinate type Cartan subalgebras whose intersection with a regular adjoint orbit give three Weyl group orbits of equilibria. These coordinate type Cartan subalgebras are the analogues of the three axes of equilibria for the classical rigid body in so(3)\mathfrak{so}(3). In addition to these coordinate type Cartan equilibria there are others that come in curves.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.0812.3415,
  title  = {Stability of equilibria for the $\mathfrak{so}(4)$ free rigid body},
  author = {Petre Birtea and Ioan Casu and Tudor S. Ratiu and Murat Turhan},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0812.3415},
  year   = {2012}
}

Comments

Preprint of a paper accepted for publication in Journal of Nonlinear Science