Milankovitch equations with spinors

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel formalism using spinors to describe the long-term evolution of quasi-Keplerian systems, demonstrating their canonical properties and applying the method to satellite motion around an oblate planet.

Contribution

It presents a new spinor-based approach to model secular dynamics, establishing the canonical nature of spinor components in this context.

Findings

Spinors serve as canonical variables in secular evolution equations.

The formalism is successfully applied to satellite motion around an oblate body.

The approach simplifies the analysis of quasi-Keplerian systems.

Abstract

We investigate the use of spinors to describe the secular evolution of quasi-Keplerian systems. Evaluating their Poisson brackets, we show that the components of a properly-chosen spinor are canonical variables. We illustrate this formalism with a satellite's motion around an oblate body.