Closed Form Approximations For The Three Body Problem

A. B. Mehmood, U. A. Shah, G. Shabbir

Published 2004-08-19Version 1

In this paper, an approach is developed to solve the three body problem involving masses which posses spherical symmetry. The problem dates back to the times of Poincare, and is undoubtedly one of the oldest of unsolved problems of classical mechanics. The Poincares Dictum comprehensively proves that the problem is truly insolvable as a result of the nature of the instabilities involved. We therefore refute the idea of finding exact solutions. Instead, we develop closed form analytical approximations in place of exact solutions. We will solve the problem for the case when all the masses involved have spherically symmetric mass distributions. The method of solution would include the use of a single mass to replicate the effect of two individual masses on each body. The derivation of solutions will involve the use of the Lamberts wave function and the solution will comprise of the position vectors expressed as explicit time functions.