Analysis of the Euler–Poisson equations by methods of power geometry and normal form

Abstract

New approaches and methods for studying non-linear problems are applied to the classical problem of the motion of a heavy rigid body about a fixed point, i.e., to the system of Euler–Poisson equations. All the asymptotic expansions of the solutions of the Kowalewski equations, to which the Euler–Poisson equations reduce when certain constraints are imposed on the parameters, are found using power geometry. They form 24 families. Then all the exact solutions of the Kowalewski equations of a specific class (which includes almost all the known exact solutions) are found on the basis of these expansions. Five new families of such solutions are found. Instead of the conventional technique of studying the global integrability of the Euler–Poisson equations, studying their local integrability near stationary and periodic solutions is proposed. Normal forms are used for this purpose. Sets of real stationary solutions, in the vicinity of which these equations are locally integrable, are discovered using them. Other real stationary solutions, in the vicinity of which the Euler–Poisson equations are locally non-integrable, are also found. This is established using the theory of resonant normal forms developed and computer calculations of the coefficients of a normal form.