Equilibria of three constrained point charges. / Khimshiashvili, G.; Panina, G.; Siersma, D.
In: Journal of Geometry and Physics, Vol. 106, 2016, p. 42-50.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Equilibria of three constrained point charges
AU - Khimshiashvili, G.
AU - Panina, G.
AU - Siersma, D.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - We study the critical points of Coulomb energy considered as a function on configuration spaces associated with certain geometric constraints. Two settings of such kind are discussed in some detail. The first setting arises by considering polygons of fixed perimeter with freely sliding positively charged vertices. The second one is concerned with triples of positive charges constrained to three concentric circles. In each of these cases the Coulomb energy is generically a Morse function. We describe the minima and other stationary points of Coulomb energy and show that, for three charges, a pitchfork bifurcation takes place accompanied by an effect of the Euler’s Buckling Beam type.
AB - We study the critical points of Coulomb energy considered as a function on configuration spaces associated with certain geometric constraints. Two settings of such kind are discussed in some detail. The first setting arises by considering polygons of fixed perimeter with freely sliding positively charged vertices. The second one is concerned with triples of positive charges constrained to three concentric circles. In each of these cases the Coulomb energy is generically a Morse function. We describe the minima and other stationary points of Coulomb energy and show that, for three charges, a pitchfork bifurcation takes place accompanied by an effect of the Euler’s Buckling Beam type.
KW - Coulomb energy
KW - Pitchfork bifurcation
KW - Euler’s buckling beam
KW - Morse points
M3 - Article
VL - 106
SP - 42
EP - 50
JO - Journal of Geometry and Physics
JF - Journal of Geometry and Physics
SN - 0393-0440
ER -
ID: 7558889