EXPLORING THE IMPACT OF A THREE-BODY INTERACTION ADDED TO THE GRAVITATIONAL POTENTIAL FUNCTION IN THE RESTRICTED THREE-BODY PROBLEM

摘要

Many binary star systems (e.g., pulsar-white dwarf) are known to possess significantly smaller companions, such as an exoplanet, in orbit about the binary. In this investigation, the dynamical environment near the binary is modeled using a three-body interaction added to the inverse-square pairwise gravitational forces in the circular, restricted three-body problem (CR3BP), given a mass ratio of 0.3. This additional force contribution is assumed to depend inversely on the product of the distances between the three bodies. Frequency analysis is used to characterize the effect of this three-body interaction on periodic and quasi-periodic orbits in the exterior region for a large mass ratio binary. Sufficiently scaled attractive threebody interactions appear to induce period-multiplying bifurcations, with a low multiplicative factor, along families of periodic orbits, an effect that is not reproducible using large mass ratios in the range [0.2, 0.4] in the CR3BP. Repulsive three-body interactions appear to impact the formation of families of periodic orbits, influencing the location of stable and unstable orbits within a periodic orbit island chain. In addition, repulsive interactions influence the openings of the Lagrange point gateways, as compared with the CR3BP.