Scattering parabolic solutions for the spatial N-centre problem

Abstract

For the $N$-centre problem in the three dimensional space, $$ \ddot x = -\sum_{i=1}^{N} \frac{m_i \,(x-c_i)}{\vert x - c_i \vert^{\alpha+2}}, \qquad x \in \mathbb{R}^3 \setminus \{c_1,\ldots,c_N\}, $$ where $N \geq 2$, $m_i > 0$ and $\alpha \in [1,2)$, we prove the existence of entire parabolic trajectories having prescribed asymptotic directions. The proof relies on a variational argument of min-max type. Morse index estimates and regularization techniques are used in order to rule out the possible occurrence of collisions.