Effect of Perturbations in the Coriolis and Centrifugal Forces on the Stability of L 4 in the Relativistic R3BP

Abstract

The centrifugal and Coriolis forces do not appear as a result of physically imposed forces, but are due to a special property of a rotation. Thus, these forces are called pseudo-forces or ‘fictitious forces’. They are merely an artifact of the rotation of the reference frame adopted. This paper studies the motion of a test particle in the neighbourhood of the triangular point L4 in the framework of the perturbed relativistic restricted three-body problem (R3BP) when small perturbations are conferred to the centrifugal and Coriolis forces. It is found that the position and stability of the triangular point are affected by both the relativistic factor and small perturbations in the Coriolis and centrifugal forces. As an application, the Sun–Earth system is considered.