THE COLLINEAR 3-BODY PROBLEM WITH NEGATIVE-ENERGY

The geometry of the global phase space of the collinear three-body pro blem with negative energy is presented in this paper. A set of transfo rmations is introduced to create fictitious boundaries to make the pha se space compact. At first, the binary collisions are not regularized Then one of the binary collisions (the collision between m(2) and m(3) ) is regularized and we analyze the phase structure of this ''half reg ularized'' system. Finally, the second binary collision (the collision between m(1) and m(2)) is regularized and we analyze how the phase st ructure is transformed by this regularization. The whole analysis prov ides a vivid picture of the phase now of the collinear three-body prob lem. (C) 1995 Academic Press, Inc.