| ▲ | cobbzilla 2 hours ago | |
It’s my understanding that most 3-body orbits are unstable; minor random perturbations will set them adrift. Are there any 3-body orbits with a natural resonance that maintains the shape of the orbits? If so, how large of a disturbance can the most-stable 3-body orbit withstand? | ||
| ▲ | chris_st an hour ago | parent | next [-] | |
A few that I looked at are annotated, "It is linearly stable (largest Floquet multiplier 1.000), so a small nudge only makes it wobble." Doesn't define "small nudge", alas... | ||
| ▲ | cobbzilla an hour ago | parent | prev [-] | |
further research indicates some do exist: - equilateral triangle is the simple case - some figure eight configurations - some configurations that act like two nested binary systems there might be others. fascinating stuff. | ||