Kinematic orbits and the structure of the internal space for systems of five or more bodies

Citation
Ka. Mitchell et Rg. Littlejohn, Kinematic orbits and the structure of the internal space for systems of five or more bodies, J PHYS A, 33(7), 2000, pp. 1395-1416
Citations number
19
Categorie Soggetti
Physics
Journal title
JOURNAL OF PHYSICS A-MATHEMATICAL AND GENERAL
ISSN journal
03054470 → ACNP
Volume
33
Issue
7
Year of publication
2000
Pages
1395 - 1416
Database
ISI
SICI code
0305-4470(20000225)33:7<1395:KOATSO>2.0.ZU;2-N
Abstract
The internal space for a molecule, atom, or other n-body system can be conv eniently parametrized by 3n - 9 kinematic angles and three kinematic invari ants. For a fixed set of kinematic invariants, the kinematic angles paramet rize a subspace, called a kinematic orbit, of the n-body internal space. Bu ilding on an earlier analysis of the three- and four-body problems, we deri ve the form of these kinematic orbits (that is, their topology) for the gen eral n-body problem. The case n = 5 is studied in detail, along with the pr eviously studied cases n = 3, 4.