Theory of Orbits

This textbook treats Celestial Mechanics as well as Stellar Dynamics from the common point of view of orbit theory making use of the concepts and techniques from modern geometric mechanics. It starts with elementary Newtonian Mechanics and ends with the dynamics of chaotic motions. The book is meant for students in astronomy and physics alike. Prerequisite is a physicist's knowledge of calculus and differential geometry. Volume 1 begins with classical mechanics and a thorough treatment of the 2-body problem, including regularization, followed by an introduction to the N-body problem with particular attention given to the virial theorem. Then the authors discuss all important non-perturbative aspects of the 3-body problem. A final chapter deals with integrability of Hamilton-Jacobi systems.