Collisionless periodic orbits in the free-fall three-body problem

Abstract

Although the free-fall three-body problem have been investigated for more than one century, however, only four collisionless periodic orbits have been found. In this paper, we report 234 collisionless periodic orbits of the free-fall three-body system with some mass ratios, including three known collisionless periodic orbits. Thus, 231 collisionless free-fall periodic orbits among them are entirely new. In theory, we can gain periodic orbits of the free-fall three-body system in arbitrary ratio of mass. Besides, it is found that, for a given ratio of masses of two bodies, there exists a generalized Kepler's third law for the periodic three-body system. All of these would enrich our knowledge and deepen our understanding about the famous three-body problem as a whole.