Periodic solutions of symmetric Kepler perturbations and applications

Abstract

We investigate the existence of several families of symmetric periodic solutions as continuation of circular orbits of the Kepler problem for certain symmetric differentiable perturbations using an appropriate set of Poincaré-Delaunay coordinates which are essential in our approach. More precisely, we try separately two situations in an independent way, namely, when the unperturbed part corresponds to a Kepler problem in inertial cartesian coordinates and when it corresponds to a Kepler problem in rotating coordinates on ℝ3. Moreover, the characteristic multipliers of the symmetric periodic solutions are characterized. The planar case arises as a particular case. Finally, we apply these results to study the existence and stability of periodic orbits of the Matese-Whitman Hamiltonian and the generalized Størmer model.