Three-body relative equilibria on $S^2$ II: Extended Lagrangian configurations

Abstract

This is a natural continuation of our first paper \cite{pre}, where we develop a new geometrical technique which allow us to study relative equilibria on the two sphere. We consider a system of three positive masses on $\mathbb{S}^2$ moving under the influence of an generic attractive potential which only depends on the mutual distances among the masses. We reduce the problem of finding extended Lagrangian relative equilibria to the analysis of the inertia tensor, then we obtain a more manageable equivalent inertia tensor which allow us to find new families of Lagrangian configurations.