Comparative study of Mercury's perihelion advance

TL;DR

This study numerically investigates Mercury's perihelion advance within a Newtonian framework, analyzing how different definitions and orbital fitting methods affect the measured perihelion shift, with a focus on the influence of Jupiter.

Contribution

It introduces precise definitions of extended and geometrical perihelion and examines their dependence on fitting intervals and numerical parameters in a Newtonian model.

Findings

Perihelion advance converges to about 532.1 arcseconds per century over 1000-year intervals.

Jupiter's influence significantly affects the perihelion behavior.

The perihelion advance depends on the fitting method and numerical time step.

Abstract

The motion of Mercury using numerical methods in the framework of a model including only the non-relativistic Newtonian gravitational interactions of the solar system, 9 planets in translation (including Pluto) around the sun has been studied. Since the true trajectory of Mercury is an open, non-planar curve, we have paid special attention to the exact definition of the advance of Mercury's perihelion. For this purpose, we have introduced the notions of an extended and a geometrical perihelion. In addition, for each orbital period, a mean ellipse was fitted to the trajectory of Mercury. I have shown that the perihelion advance of Mercury deduced from the behavior of the Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector, as well as the extended and geometrical perihelion advance depend on the fitting time interval and for intervals of the order of 1000 years converge to a value of 532.1 arcseconds per century. The behavior of the perihelia, either extended or geometrical, is strongly impacted by the influence of Jupiter. The advance of the extended perihelion depends strongly on the time step used in the calculations, while the advance of the geometrical perihelion and that deduced by the rotation of the Laplace-Runge-Lenz vector depends only slightly on it.