A study of braids arising from simple choreographies of the planar Newtonian N-body problem

Abstract

We study periodic solutions of the planar Newtonian $N$-body problem with equal masses. Each periodic solution traces out a braid with $N$ strands in 3-dimensional space. When the braid is of pseudo-Anosov type, it has an associated stretch factor greater than 1, which reflects the complexity of the corresponding periodic solution. For each $N \ge 3$, Guowei Yu established the existence of a family of simple choreographies to the planar Newtonian $N$-body problem. We prove that braids arising from Yu's periodic solutions are of pseudo-Anosov types, except in the special case where all particles move along a circle. We also identify the simple choreographies whose braid types have the largest and smallest stretch factors, respectively.