arXiv subjects

Tingjie Zhou

Publications and source records attributed to Tingjie Zhou.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

On the Degeneracy of the Central Configuration Formed by a Regular n-Gon with a Central Mass

We investigate the degeneracy of the central configuration formed by a regular $n$-gon of equal masses together with an additional mass at the center. While degeneracy of such configurations has traditionally been studied through direct spectral computations, a systematic structural understanding of the origin and multiplicity of degeneracy values has remained incomplete. Exploiting the dihedral symmetry $D_n$, we develop a representation-theoretic framework that decomposes the Hessian of $\sqrt{IU}$ into invariant blocks associated with irreducible symmetry modes, reducing the degeneracy problem to a finite collection of low-dimensional determinants. In particular, this decomposition reveals a distinguished $3 \times 3$ block arising from the coupling between the central mass and the first Fourier mode. Within this framework, degeneracy is organized mode by mode: for each admissible Fourier mode $l \geq 2$, there exists at most one critical value of the central mass parameter at which degeneracy occurs, while the mode $l = 1$ exhibits a qualitatively different behavior. As a consequence, all degeneracy values can be determined explicitly, and their number increases with $n$, reflecting the growing number of independent symmetry modes. Our results provide a structural explanation for the multiplicity of degeneracy values and show that degeneracy is not an isolated phenomenon, but a consequence of the underlying symmetry. The approach also suggests a general framework for analyzing degeneracy in symmetric central configurations.

math.DS↗

arXiv2024

Central Configurations with Dihedral Symmetry

As an application of the representation theory for the dihedral groups, we study the symmetric central configurations in the n-body problem where $n$ equal masses are placed at the vertices of a regular $n$-gon. Since the Hessian matrices at these configurations are typically very large, particularly when $n$ is large, computations of their eigenvalues present a challenging problem. However, by decomposing the action of the dihedral groups into irreducible representations, we show that the Hessians can be simplified to a block-diagonal matrix with small blocks, of the sizes at most 2*2. This is due to the fact that the action of a dihedral group can be represented as a block-diagonal matrix with small irreducible blocks. In the end, the eigenvalues can be explicitly obtained by simply computing eigenvalues of these small block matrices.

math.DS↗

arXiv2021

Symmetry in n-body problem via group representations

We introduce an algebraic method to study local stability in the Newtonian $n$-body problem when certain symmetries are present. We use representation theory of groups to simplify the calculations of certain eigenvalue problems. The method should be applicable in many cases, we give two main examples here: the square central configurations with four equal masses, and the equilateral triangular configurations with three equal masses plus an additional mass of arbitrary size at the center. We explicitly found the eigenvalues of certain 8x8 Hessians in these examples, with only some simple calculations of traces. We also studied the local stability properties of corresponding relative equilibria in the four-body problems.

math.DS↗