Regular and chaotic motion in a restricted three–body problem of astrophysical interest

J. C. MUZZIO; F. C. WACHLIN; D. D. CARPINTERO

Turku

Simposio; Small Galaxy Groups, IAU Colloquium 174; 1999

Unión Astronómica Internacional

We have sutdied the motion of massless particles (stars) bound to a stellar system (a galactic satellite) that moves on a circular orbit in an external field (a galaxy). A large percentage of the stellar orbits turned out to be chaotic, contrary to what happens in the usual restricted three-body problem of celestial mechanics where most ot the orbits are regular. The discrepancy is probably due to three facts: 1) Our study is not limited to orbits on the main planes of symmetry, but considers three-dimensional motion; 2) The force exerted by the satellite goes to zero (rather than to infinity) at the center of the satellite; 3) The potential of the satellite is triaxial, rather than spherical.