Spectral instability of the regular n-gon elliptic relative equilibrium in the planar n-body problem

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ou, Yuwei, Wang, Yunying
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866914124115476480
author Ou, Yuwei
Wang, Yunying
author_facet Ou, Yuwei
Wang, Yunying
contents The regular $n$-gon elliptic relative equilibrium (ERE) is a Kepler homographic solution generated by the regular $n$-gon central configuration, and its linear stability depends on the eccentricity $\mathfrak{e}\in[0,1)$. While Moeckel \cite{Moe1} established the spectral instability for this solution at $\mathfrak{e}=0$ for all $n\geq3$, it remained unknown whether instability persists for $\mathfrak{e} \in (0,1)$. This paper resolves this problem: we prove that the regular $n$-gon ERE is spectral instability for all $n\geq 3$ and $\mathfrak{e} \in [0,1)$. Furthermore, we introduce the $β$-system which related the Lagrange solution, and we developed an estimation method that, by testing the hyperbolicity of the $β$-system at a finite number of points alone, allows us to obtain extensive hyperbolic regions. As a corollary, for $n=3,4,5$, we uniformly demonstrate that the instability is hyperbolic (and hence stronger) for all $\mathfrak{e} \in [0,1)$.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2510_26211
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Spectral instability of the regular n-gon elliptic relative equilibrium in the planar n-body problem
Ou, Yuwei
Wang, Yunying
Dynamical Systems
Classical Analysis and ODEs
70F10, 37J25, 37J46, 34L15
The regular $n$-gon elliptic relative equilibrium (ERE) is a Kepler homographic solution generated by the regular $n$-gon central configuration, and its linear stability depends on the eccentricity $\mathfrak{e}\in[0,1)$. While Moeckel \cite{Moe1} established the spectral instability for this solution at $\mathfrak{e}=0$ for all $n\geq3$, it remained unknown whether instability persists for $\mathfrak{e} \in (0,1)$. This paper resolves this problem: we prove that the regular $n$-gon ERE is spectral instability for all $n\geq 3$ and $\mathfrak{e} \in [0,1)$. Furthermore, we introduce the $β$-system which related the Lagrange solution, and we developed an estimation method that, by testing the hyperbolicity of the $β$-system at a finite number of points alone, allows us to obtain extensive hyperbolic regions. As a corollary, for $n=3,4,5$, we uniformly demonstrate that the instability is hyperbolic (and hence stronger) for all $\mathfrak{e} \in [0,1)$.
title Spectral instability of the regular n-gon elliptic relative equilibrium in the planar n-body problem
topic Dynamical Systems
Classical Analysis and ODEs
70F10, 37J25, 37J46, 34L15
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.26211