Symbolic dynamics: From the N-centre to the (N + 1)-body problem, a preliminary study

We consider a rotating N-centre problem, with N ≥ 3 and homogeneous potentials of degree -α < 0, α ∈ [1,2). We prove the existence of infinitely many collision-free periodic solutions with negative and small Jacobi constant and small values of the angular velocity, for any initial configuration of the centres. We will introduce a Maupertuis' type variational principle in order to apply the broken geodesics technique developed in Soave and Terracini (Discrete Contin Dyn Syst 32:3245-3301, 2012). Major difficulties arise from the fact that, contrary to the classical Jacobi length, the related functional does not come from a Riemaniann structure but from a Finslerian one. Our existence result allows us to characterize the associated dynamical system with a symbolic dynamics, where the symbols are given partitions of the centres in two non-empty sets. © 2013 Springer Basel.