On the uniqueness of the planar 5-body central configuration with a trapezoidal convex hull

Abstract

To apply Morse's critical point theory, we use mutual distances as coordinates to discuss a kind of central configuration of the planar Newtonian 5-body problem with a trapezoidal convex hull, i.e., four of the five bodies are located at the vertices of a trapezoid, and the fifth one is located on one of the parallel sides. We show that there is at most one central configuration of this geometrical shape for a given cyclic order of the five bodies along the convex hull.