Chaotic motion around prolate deformed bodies - art. no. 035201

The motion of particles in the field of forces associated to an axially sym metric attraction center modeled by a monopolar term plus a prolate quadrup ole deformations is studied using Poincare surface of sections and Lyapunov characteristic numbers. We find chaotic motion for certain values of the p arameters, and that the instability of the orbits increases when the quadru pole parameter increases. A general relativistic analog is briefly discusse d.