Flux-based statistical prediction of three-body outcomes. (arXiv:2002.11496v5 [gr-qc] UPDATED)
<a href="http://arxiv.org/find/gr-qc/1/au:+Kol_B/0/1/0/all/0/1">Barak Kol</a>
The gravitational three-body problem is a rich open problem, dating back to
Newton. It serves as a prototypical example of a chaotic system and has
numerous applications in astrophysics. Generically, the motion is
non-integrable and susceptible to disintegration, and for negative total energy
the decay outcome is a free body flying apart from a binary. Since Poincar’e,
the problem is known to be chaotic and is believed to lack a general
deterministic solution. Instead, decades ago a statistical solution was marked
as a goal. Yet, despite considerable progress, all extant approaches display
two flaws. First, probability was equated with phase space volume, thereby
ignoring the fact that significant regions of phase space describe regular
motion, including post-decay motion. Secondly and relatedly, an adjustable
parameter, the strong interaction region, which is a sort of cutoff, was a
central ingredient of the theory.
This paper introduces remedies and presents for the first time a statistical
prediction of decay rates, in addition to outcomes. Based on an analogy with a
particle moving within a leaky container, the statistical distribution is
presented in an exactly factorized form. One factor is the flux of phase-space
volume, rather than the volume itself, and it is given in a cutoff-independent
closed-form. The other factors are the chaotic absorptivity and the regularized
phase space volume. The situation is analogous to Kirchhoff’s law of thermal
radiation, also known as greybody radiation. In addition, an equation system
for the time evolution of the statistical distribution is introduced; it
describes the decay rate statistics while accounting for sub-escape excursions.
Early numerical tests indicate a leap in accuracy.
The gravitational three-body problem is a rich open problem, dating back to
Newton. It serves as a prototypical example of a chaotic system and has
numerous applications in astrophysics. Generically, the motion is
non-integrable and susceptible to disintegration, and for negative total energy
the decay outcome is a free body flying apart from a binary. Since Poincar’e,
the problem is known to be chaotic and is believed to lack a general
deterministic solution. Instead, decades ago a statistical solution was marked
as a goal. Yet, despite considerable progress, all extant approaches display
two flaws. First, probability was equated with phase space volume, thereby
ignoring the fact that significant regions of phase space describe regular
motion, including post-decay motion. Secondly and relatedly, an adjustable
parameter, the strong interaction region, which is a sort of cutoff, was a
central ingredient of the theory.
This paper introduces remedies and presents for the first time a statistical
prediction of decay rates, in addition to outcomes. Based on an analogy with a
particle moving within a leaky container, the statistical distribution is
presented in an exactly factorized form. One factor is the flux of phase-space
volume, rather than the volume itself, and it is given in a cutoff-independent
closed-form. The other factors are the chaotic absorptivity and the regularized
phase space volume. The situation is analogous to Kirchhoff’s law of thermal
radiation, also known as greybody radiation. In addition, an equation system
for the time evolution of the statistical distribution is introduced; it
describes the decay rate statistics while accounting for sub-escape excursions.
Early numerical tests indicate a leap in accuracy.
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