English

Rectangular orbits of the curved 4-body problem

Dynamical Systems 2016-03-11 v2

Abstract

We consider the 4-body problem in spaces of constant curvature and study the existence of spherical and hyperbolic rectangular solutions, i.e. equiangular quadrilateral motions on spheres and hyperbolic spheres. We focus on relative equilibria (orbits that maintain constant mutual distances) and rotopulsators (configurations that rotate and change size, but preserve equiangularity). We prove that when such orbits exist, they are necessarily spherical or hyperbolic squares, i.e. equiangular equilateral quadrilaterals.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1302.5352,
  title  = {Rectangular orbits of the curved 4-body problem},
  author = {Florin Diacu and Brendan Thorn},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1302.5352},
  year   = {2016}
}

Comments

12 pages

R2 v1 2026-06-21T23:30:17.982Z