On the perturbed harmonic oscillator and celestial mechanics

TL;DR

This paper investigates how various perturbations affect the orbits in a three-dimensional harmonic oscillator, with applications to celestial mechanics, revealing conditions for precession, eccentricity changes, and the effects of different force laws.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive analysis of perturbations in harmonic oscillators using the Runge-Lenz tensor, extending understanding to celestial mechanics and diverse force laws.

Findings

Perturbed orbits precess under Larmor and Keplerian forces.

General power-law perturbations cause orbit precession.

Linear drag preserves eccentricity, higher powers increase it, and Chandrasekhar friction decreases eccentricity.

Abstract

We study the influence of perturbations in the three dimensional isotropic harmonic oscillator problem considering different perturbing force laws and apply our results in the context of celestial mechanics, particularly in the movement of stars in stellar clusters. We use a method based on the Runge-Lenz tensor, so that our results are valid for any eccentricity of the unperturbed orbits of the oscillator. To establish basic concepts, we start by considering two cases, namely: a Larmor and a keplerian perturbation; and show that, in both cases, the perturbed orbits will precess. After that, we consider the more general problem of a central perturbation with any power-law dependence, that also only causes precession. Then, we consider precessionless perturbations caused by an Euler force and by the non-central dragging forces of the form $\boldsymbol{\delta F}=-\gamma_nv^{n-1}\boldsymbol{v}$, where $\boldsymbol{v}$ is the velocity of the particle and $\gamma_n\geq0$. We demonstrate that, in the case of a linear drag $(n=1)$, the orbits eccentricities remains constant. In contrast to what occurs in the well-known Kepler problem, for $n>1$ the orbit becomes increasingly eccentric. In the case $n=-3$, where the force is interpreted as a Chandrasekhar friction, we show that the eccentricity diminishes over time. We finish this work by making a few comments about the relevance of the main results.