A first course in celestial mechanics emphasising the variety of geometric ideas that have shaped the subject.

Carl Ludwig Siegel gave a course of lectures on the Geometry of Numbers at New York University during the academic year 1945-46, when there were hardly any books on the subject other than Minkowski's original one. This volume stems from Siegel's requirements of accuracy in detail, both in the text and in the illustrations, but involving no changes in the structure and style of the lectures as originally delivered. This book is an enticing introduction to Minkowski's great work. It also reveals the workings of a remarkable mind, such as Siegel's with its precision and power and aesthetic charm. It is of interest to the aspiring as well as the established mathematician, with its unique blend of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, and analysis, and its easy readability.

This authoritative book presents the theoretical development of gravitational physics as it applies to the dynamics of celestial bodies and the analysis of precise astronomical observations. In so doing, it fills the need for a textbook that teaches modern dynamical astronomy with a strong emphasis on the relativistic aspects of the subject produced by the curved geometry of four-dimensional spacetime. The first three chapters review the fundamental principles of celestial mechanics and of special and general relativity. This background material forms the basis for understanding relativistic reference frames, the celestial mechanics of N-body systems, and high-precision astrometry, navigation, and geodesy, which are then treated in the following five chapters. The final chapter provides an overview of the new field of applied relativity, based on recent recommendations from the International Astronomical Union. The book is suitable for teaching advanced undergraduate honors programs and graduate courses, while equally serving as a reference for professional research scientists working in relativity and dynamical astronomy. The authors bring their extensive theoretical and practical experience to the subject. Sergei Kopeikin is a professor at the University of Missouri, while Michael Efroimsky and George Kaplan work at the United States Naval Observatory, one of the world?s premier institutions for expertise in astrometry, celestial mechanics, and timekeeping.

This overview of classical celestial mechanics focuses the interplay with dynamical systems. Paradigmatic models introduce key concepts – order, chaos, invariant curves and cantori – followed by the investigation of dynamical systems with numerical methods.

The present book represents to a large extent the translation of the German "Vorlesungen über Himmelsmechanik" by C. L. Siegel. The demand for a new edition and for an English translation gave rise to the present volume which, however, goes beyond a mere translation. To take account of recent work in this field a number of sections have been added, especially in the third chapter which deals with the stability theory. Still, it has not been attempted to give a complete presentation of the subject, and the basic prganization of Siegel's original book has not been altered. The emphasis lies in the development of results and analytic methods which are based on the ideas of H. Poincare, G. D. Birkhoff, A. Liapunov and, as far as Chapter I is concerned, on the work of K. F. Sundman and C. L. Siegel. In recent years the measure-theoretical aspects of mechanics have been revitalized and have led to new results which will not be discussed here. In this connection we refer, in particular, to the interesting book by V. I. Arnold and A. Avez on "Problemes Ergodiques de la Mecanique Classique", which stresses the interaction of ergodic theory and mechanics. We list the points in which the present book differs from the German text. In the first chapter two sections on the tri pie collision in the three body problem have been added by C. L. Siegel.

The aim of this book is to demonstrate to a wider audience, as well as to a more skilled audience, the many fascinating aspects of modern celestial mechanics. It sets out to do this without the use of mathematics. After giving the reader the technical tools needed for a basic understanding of the underlying physical phenomena (using only elementary mathematics), facts and figures are provided on historical events, modern discoveries and future applications. Contents are divided into major topics where the three "souls" of modern celestial mechanics (dynamical systems, Solar System and stellar systems, spaceflight dynamics) play a major role.

Second Year Calculus: From Celestial Mechanics to Special Relativity covers multi-variable and vector calculus, emphasizing the historical physical problems which gave rise to the concepts of calculus. The book guides us from the birth of the mechanized view of the world in Isaac Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in which mathematics becomes the ultimate tool for modelling physical reality, to the dawn of a radically new and often counter-intuitive age in Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity in which it is the mathematical model which suggests new aspects of that reality. The development of this process is discussed from the modern viewpoint of differential forms. Using this concept, the student learns to compute orbits and rocket trajectories, model flows and force fields, and derive the laws of electricity and magnetism. These exercises and observations of mathematical symmetry enable the student to better understand the interaction of physics and mathematics.