Three-Body 3D-Kepler Electromagnetic Problem—Existence of Periodic Solutions

Abstract

The main purpose of the present paper is to prove the existence of periodic solutions of the three-body problem in the 3D Kepler formulation. We have solved the same problem in the case when the three particles are considered in an external inertial system. We start with the three-body equations of motion, which are a subset of the equations of motion (previously derived by us) for any number of bodies. In the Minkowski space, there are 12 equations of motion. It is proved that three of them are consequences of the other nine, so their number becomes nine, as much as the unknown trajectories are. The Kepler formulation assumes that one particle (the nucleus) is placed at the coordinate origin. The motion of the other two particles is described by a neutral system with respect to the unknown velocities. The state-dependent delays arise as a consequence of the finite vacuum speed of light. We obtain the equations of motion in spherical coordinates and split them into two groups. In the first group all arguments of the unknown functions are delays. We take their solutions as initial functions. Then, the equations of motion for the remaining two particles must be solved to the right of the initial point. To prove the existence–uniqueness of a periodic solution, we choose a space consisting of periodic infinitely smooth functions satisfying some supplementary conditions. Then, we use a suitable operator which acts on these spaces and whose fixed points are periodic solutions. We apply the fixed point theorem for the operators acting on the spaces of periodic functions. In this manner, we show the stability of the He atom in the frame of classical electrodynamics. In a previous paper of ours, we proved the existence of spin functions for plane motion. Thus, we confirm the Bohr and Sommerfeld’s hypothesis for the He atom.