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arXiv · 1111.4245

Minimum Energy Configurations in the $N$-Body Problem and the Celestial Mechanics of Granular Systems

D. J. Scheeres
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Abstract

Minimum energy configurations in celestial mechanics are investigated. It is shown that this is not a well defined problem for point-mass celestial mechanics but well-posed for finite density distributions. This naturally leads to a granular mechanics extension of usual celestial mechanics questions such as relative equilibria and stability. This paper specifically studies and finds all relative equilibria and minimum energy configurations for $N=1,2,3$ and develops hypotheses on the relative equilibria and minimum energy configurations for $N\gg 1$ bodies.

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D. J. Scheeres. 2011-11-18. Minimum Energy Configurations in the $N$-Body Problem and the Celestial Mechanics of Granular Systems. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10569-012-9416-0

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