Simple Choreographies of the Planar Newtonian N-Body Problem

Abstract

In this paper, for the spatial Newtonian $2n$-body problem with equal masses, by proving the minimizers of the action functional under certain symmetric, topological and monotone constraints are collision-free, we found a family of spatial double choreographies, which have the common feature that half of the masses are circling around the $z$-axis clockwise along a spatial loop, while the motions of the other half masses are given by a rotation of the first half around the $x$-axis by $\pi$. Both loops are simple, without any self-intersection, and symmetric with respect to the $xz$-plane and $yz$-plane. The set of intersection points between the two loops is non-empty and contained in the $xy$-plane. The number of such double choreographies grows exponentially as $n$ goes to infinity.