arXiv · 1405.0453
The classical N-body problem in the context of curved space
Abstract
We provide the differential equations that generalize the Newtonian N-body problem of celestial mechanics to spaces of constant Gaussian curvature, k, for all k real. In previous studies, the equations of motion made sense only for k nonzero. The system derived here does more than just include the Euclidean case in the limit when k tends to 0: it recovers the classical equations for k=0. This new expression of the laws of motion allows the study of the N-body problem in the context of constant curvature spaces and thus offers a natural generalization of the Newtonian equations that includes the classical case. We end the paper with remarks about the bifurcations of the first integrals.
Explore related subjects
Keep this discovery
Florin Diacu. 2014-05-02. The classical N-body problem in the context of curved space. https://doi.org/10.4153/cjm-2016-041-2
Cite the original work for its findings. Save a collection to share your selection of sources.