Action Minimizing Solutions of The One-Dimensional $N$-Body Problem With Equal Masses

Abstract

When we use variational methods to study the Newtonian $N$-body problem, the main problem is how to avoid collisions. C.Marchal got a remarkable result, that is, a path minimizing the Lagrangian action functional between two given configurations is always a true (collision-free) solution, so long as the dimension $d$ of physical space $\mathbb{R}^d$ satisfies $d\geq2$. But Marchal's idea can't apply to the case of the one-dimensional physical space. In this paper, we will study the fixed-ends problem for the one-dimensional Newtonian $N$-body problem with equal masses to supplement Marchal's result. More precisely, we first get the isolated property of collision moments for a path minimizing the action functional between two given configurations, then, if the particles at two endpoints have the same order, the path minimizing the action functional is always a true (collision-free) solution; otherwise, although there must be collisions for any path, we can prove that there are at most $N! - 1$ collisions for any action minimizing path.