Central-body square configuration of restricted six-body problem

Abstract

This paper deals with the existence and stability of libration points in linear sense in the central-body square configuration of restricted six-body problem. It is found that there exist twelve libration points, four collinear and eight non-collinear. All libration points lie on the concentric circles C1, C2 and C3 centered at origin. The libration points L1,3,5,7 lie on circle C1, L9,10,11,12 on C2 and L2,4,6,8 on C3. This is also observed that the eight libration points are on the axes and four are off the axes, i.e., L1,2,3,4 are on x-axis, L5,6,7,8 on y-axis and rest are off the axes. The libration points on circles C1 and C3 are unstable for all values of mass parameter µ while the libration points on circle C2 are stable for the critical mass parameter µc = 0.00910065.