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Approximation of symmetric periodic solutions of the Sitnikov problem

Author(s): Toochukwu Ogbonnia Oko1, Everestus Obinwanne Eze1, Awogbemi Clement Adeyeye2
1Department of Mathematics, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria
2Statistics Programme, National Mathematical Centre, Abuja, Nigeria
Copyright © Toochukwu Ogbonnia Oko, Everestus Obinwanne Eze, Awogbemi Clement Adeyeye. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

In this study, an approximate solution of the Sitnikov problem was investigated using fourth-order Runge – Kutta method. We confirmed the periodicity and the symmetric nature of the orbits. The various values of eccentricities were obtained which showed that at eccentricity e = 0, the orbit moves in a circular shape and otherwise when e < 0. Also at every values of e, we found the numerical results which we demonstrated by simulations using MATCAD which showed that the range for the search of eccentricities can be narrowed down at different values of e, different sinusoidal frequencies were obtained.

Keywords: Sitnikov motions, symmetric periodic orbits, Fourth-order Runge-Kutta method, MATCAD simulations, eccentricity differences