Presents new algorithms for determining orbits; ideal for graduate students and researchers in applied mathematics, physics, astronomy and aerospace engineering.

Orbital motion is a vital subject which has engaged the greatest minds in mathematics and physics from Kepler to Einstein. It has gained in importance in the space age and touches every scientist in any field of space science. Still, there is almost a total dearth of books in this important field at the elementary and intermediate levels — at best a chapter in an undergraduate or graduate mechanics course.This book addresses that need, beginning with Kepler's laws of planetary motion followed by Newton's law of gravitation. Average and extremum values of dynamical variables are treated and the central force problem is formally discussed. The planetary problem in Cartesian and complex coordinates is tackled and examples of Keplerian motion in the solar system are also considered. The final part of the book is devoted to the motion of artificial Earth satellites and the modifications of their orbits by perturbing forces of various kinds.

Half a century ago, S. Chandrasekhar wrote these words in the preface to his 1 celebrated and successful book: In this monograph an attempt has been made to present the theory of stellar dy namics as a branch of classical dynamics - a discipline in the same general category as celestial mechanics. [ ... ] Indeed, several of the problems of modern stellar dy namical theory are so severely classical that it is difficult to believe that they are not already discussed, for example, in Jacobi's Vorlesungen. Since then, stellar dynamics has developed in several directions and at var ious levels, basically three viewpoints remaining from which to look at the problems encountered in the interpretation of the phenomenology. Roughly speaking, we can say that a stellar system (cluster, galaxy, etc.) can be con sidered from the point of view of celestial mechanics (the N-body problem with N» 1), fluid mechanics (the system is represented by a material con tinuum), or statistical mechanics (one defines a distribution function for the positions and the states of motion of the components of the system).

Theory of Orbits: The Restricted Problem of Three Bodies is a 10-chapter text that covers the significance of the restricted problem of three bodies in analytical dynamics, celestial mechanics, and space dynamics. The introductory part looks into the use of three essentially different approaches to dynamics, namely, the qualitative, the quantitative, and the formalistic. The opening chapters consider the formulation of equations of motion in inertial and in rotating coordinate systems, as well as the reductions of the problem of three bodies and the corresponding streamline analogies. These topics are followed by discussions on the regularization and writing of equations of motion in a singularity-free systems; the principal qualitative aspect of the restricted problem of the curves of zero velocity; and the motion and nonlinear stability in the neighborhood of libration points. This text further explores the principles of Hamiltonian dynamics and its application to the restricted problem in the extended phase space. A chapter treats the problem of two bodies in a rotating coordinate system and treats periodic orbits in the restricted problem. Another chapter focuses on the comparison of the lunar and interplanetary orbits in the Soviet and American literature. The concluding chapter is devoted to modifications of the restricted problem, such as the elliptic, three-dimensional, and Hill’s problem. This book is an invaluable source for astronomers, engineers, and mathematicians.

Half a century ago, S. Chandrasekhar wrote these words in the preface to his l celebrated and successful book: In this monograph an attempt has been made to present the theory of stellar dy namics as a branch of classical dynamics - a discipline in the same general category as celestial mechanics. [ ... J Indeed, several of the problems of modern stellar dy namical theory are so severely classical that it is difficult to believe that they are not already discussed, for example, in Jacobi's Vorlesungen. Since then, stellar dynamics has developed in several directions and at var ious levels, basically three viewpoints remaining from which to look at the problems encountered in the interpretation of the phenomenology. Roughly speaking, we can say that a stellar system (cluster, galaxy, etc.) can be con sidered from the point of view of celestial mechanics (the N-body problem with N » 1), fluid mechanics (the system is represented by a material con tinuum), or statistical mechanics (one defines a distribution function for the positions and the states of motion of the components of the system).

Describes the essence of the orbit method for non-experts and gives a detailed exposition of the method. This work can be used as a text for a graduate course, as well as a handbook for non-experts and a reference book for research mathematicians and mathematical physicists.

Ever since its introduction around 1960 by Kirillov, the orbit method has played a major role in representation theory of Lie groups and Lie algebras. This book contains the proceedings of a conference held from August 29 to September 2, 1988, at the University of Copenhagen, about "the orbit method in representation theory." It contains ten articles, most of which are original research papers, by well-known mathematicians in the field, and it reflects the fact that the orbit method plays an important role in the representation theory of semisimple Lie groups, solvable Lie groups, and even more general Lie groups, and also in the theory of enveloping algebras.