Special Session 16: Celestial Mechanics and Hamiltonian Systems

On the Uniqueness of Co-circular Four Body Central Configurations

Manuele Santoprete
Wilfrid Laurier University
Canada
Co-Author(s):    
Abstract:
In this talk we consider central configurations lying on a common circle in the Newtonian four-body problem. Using a topological argument we show that there is at most one co-circular central configuration for each cyclic ordering of the masses on the circle.