Susanna Terracini

Dipartimento di Matematica "Giuseppe Peano", Università di Torino

Expanding solutions to the N-body problem

We deal, for the classical N-body problem, with the existence of action minimizing half entire expansive solutions with prescribed asymptotic direction and initial configuration of the bodies. We tackle the cases of hyperbolic, hyperbolic-parabolic and parabolic arcs in a unified manner.

 Our approach is based on the minimization of a renormalized Lagrangian action, on a suitable functional space. With this new strategy, we are able to confirm the already-known results of the existence of both hyperbolic and parabolic solutions, and we prove for the first time the existence of hyperbolic-parabolic solutions for any prescribed asymptotic expansion in a suitable class.

Associated with each element of this class we find a viscosity solution of the Hamilton-Jacobi equation as a linear correction of the value function. Besides, we also manage to give a precise description of the growth of parabolic and hyperbolic-parabolic solutions.