An application of recurrence relations to central force fields

Gezer N. A.

Turkish Journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol.5, no.2, pp.13-21, 2024 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)

Abstract

By generalizing the relationships between auxiliary variables that appear in the works of A.E. Roy, we investigate the dynamics of non-interacting particles under the action of a central force field whose force function is a solution to a certain differential equation. The method used by A.E. Roy, R. Broucke, and later by G. Sitarski, was utilized in such a way that the obtained recursive equations can be used to describe the motion of a particle under such a field. The class of such fields includes both gravitational and non-gravitational force fields. Several numerical and historically essential examples and detailed discussions of various cases are given.