Two-body problem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Two-body problem
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In classical mechanics, the two-body problem is to

determine the motion of two point particles that interact
only with each other. Common examples include a satellite
orbiting a planet, a planet orbiting a star, two stars orbiting
each other (a binary star), and a classical electron orbiting
an atomic nucleus (although to solve the electron/nucleus
2-body system correctly a quantum mechanical approach
must be used).
The two-body problem can be re-formulated as two
one-body problems, a trivial one and one that involves
solving for the motion of one particle in an external
potential. Since many one-body problems can be solved
exactly, the corresponding two-body problem can also be
solved. By contrast, the three-body problem (and, more
generally, the n-body problem for n 3) cannot be solved
in terms of first integrals, except in special cases.

Left: Two bodies with similar mass orbiting a

common barycenter external to both bodies, with
elliptic orbitstypical of binary stars. Right: Two
bodies with a "slight" difference in mass orbiting a
common barycenter. The sizes, and this type of orbit
are similar to the PlutoCharon system (in which the
barycenter is external to both bodies), and to the
EarthMoon systemwhere the barycenter is internal
to the larger body.

Contents
1 Reduction to two independent, one-body problems
1.1 Center of mass motion (1st one-body problem)
2 Two-body motion is planar
3 Energy of the two-body system
4 Central forces
5 Work
6 See also
7 References
8 Bibliography
9 External links

Reduction to two independent, one-body problems

Let x1 and x2 be the vector positions of the two bodies, and m1 and m2 be their masses. The goal is to determine
the trajectories x1(t) and x2(t) for all times t, given the initial positions x1(t = 0) and x2(t = 0) and the initial
velocities v1(t = 0) and v2(t = 0).
When applied to the two masses, Newton's second law states that

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where F12 is the force on mass 1 due to its interactions with

mass 2, and F21 is the force on mass 2 due to its interactions
with mass 1. The two dots on top of the x position vectors
denote their second derivative, or their acceleration vectors.
Adding and subtracting these two equations decouples them
into two one-body problems, which can be solved
independently. Adding equations (1) and (2) results in an
equation describing the center of mass (barycenter) motion.
By contrast, subtracting equation (2) from equation (1)
results in an equation that describes how the vector
r = x1 x2 between the masses changes with time. The
solutions of these independent one-body problems can be
combined to obtain the solutions for the trajectories x1(t)
and x2(t).

Jacobi coordinates for two-body problem; Jacobi

coordinates are

and
with

.[1]

Center of mass motion (1st one-body problem)

Addition of the force equations (1) and (2) yields

where we have used Newton's third law F12 = F21 and where

is the position of the center of mass (barycenter) of the system.

The resulting equation:

shows that the velocity V = dR/dt of the center of mass is constant, from which follows that the total momentum
m1 v1 + m2 v2 is also constant (conservation of momentum). Hence, the position R (t) of the center of mass can
be determined at all times from the initial positions and velocities.

Two-body motion is planar

The motion of two bodies with respect to each other always lies in a plane (in the center of mass frame).
Defining the linear momentum p and the angular momentum L by the equations (where is the reduced mass)

the rate of change of the angular momentum L equals the net torque N

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and using the property of the vector cross product that v w = 0 for any vectors v and w pointing in the same
direction,

with F = d 2r / dt 2.
Introducing the assumption (true of most physical forces, as they obey Newton's strong third law of motion) that
the force between two particles acts along the line between their positions, it follows that r F = 0 and the
angular momentum vector L is constant (conserved). Therefore, the displacement vector r and its velocity v are
always in the plane perpendicular to the constant vector L.

Energy of the two-body system

If the force F(r) is conservative then the system has a potential energy U(r), so the total energy can be written
as

In the center of mass frame the kinetic energy is the lowest and the total energy becomes

The coordinates x1 and x2 can be expressed as

and in a similar way the energy E is related to the energies E1 and E2 that separately contain the kinetic energy
of each body:

Central forces
For many physical problems, the force F(r) is a central force, i.e., it is of the form

where r = |r| and r = r/r is the corresponding unit vector. We now have:

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where F(r) is negative in the case of an attractive force.

Work
The total work done in a given time interval by the forces exerted by two bodies on each other is the same as the
work done by one force applied to the total relative displacement.

See also
Kepler orbit
Energy drift
Equation of the center
Euler's three-body problem
Gravitational two-body problem
Kepler problem
n-body problem
Virial theorem
Two-body problem (career)

References
1. David Betounes (2001). Differential Equations. Springer. p. 58; Figure 2.15. ISBN 0-387-95140-7.

Bibliography
Landau LD; Lifshitz EM (1976). Mechanics (3rd. ed.). New York: Pergamon Press. ISBN 0-08-029141-4.
Goldstein H (1980). Classical Mechanics (2nd. ed.). New York: Addison-Wesley. ISBN 0-201-02918-9.

External links
Two-body problem (http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/physics/Two-BodyProblem.html) at Eric Weisstein's
World of Physics
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