Periodic orbits with prescribed negative energy for relativistic Keplerian problems

Abstract

Using a variational approach, we study the existence of periodic solutions with prescribed energy for the relativistic equation \begin{equation*} \dfrac{\mathrm{d}}{\mathrm{d}t}\left(\dfrac{m\dot x}{\sqrt{1-|\dot{x}|^{2}/c^{2}}}\right) = -α\frac{x}{|x|^{3}} + \nabla W(x), \qquad x\in\mathbb{R}^{N}\setminus\{0\}, \end{equation*} where $W$ is a lower-order perturbation of the Kepler potential. The main difficulty stems from the fact that the Kepler singularity is critical for the associated Maupertuis functional, lying exactly at the boundary between the weak force and strong force regimes. To overcome the resulting lack of compactness, we use a penalization procedure and develop a suitable min-max scheme combined with a blow-up analysis of near-collision critical sequences. As a consequence, we establish the existence of periodic solutions on prescribed negative energy levels, obtaining non-perturbative results in every dimension $N\geq 2$.