The spin-spin problem in celestial mechanics

Abstract

We study the dynamics of two homogeneous rigid ellipsoids subject to their mutual gravitational influence. We assume that the spin axis of each ellipsoid coincides with its shortest physical axis and is perpendicular to the orbital plane. Due to such assumptions, the problem is planar and depends on particular parameters of the ellipsoids, most notably, the equatorial oblateness and the flattening with respect to the shortest physical axes. We consider two models for such configuration: while in the full model, there is a coupling between the orbital and rotational motions, in the Keplerian model, the centers of mass of the bodies are constrained to move on coplanar Keplerian ellipses. The Keplerian case, in the approximation that includes the coupling between the spins of the two ellipsoids, is what we call spin–spin problem, that is a generalization of the classical spin–orbit problem. In this paper we continue the investigations of Misquero (Nonlinearity 34:2191–2219, 2021) on the spin–spin problem by comparing it with the spin–orbit problem and also with the full model. Beside detailing the models associated to the spin–orbit and spin–spin problems, we introduce the notions of standard and balanced resonances, which lead us to investigate the existence of periodic and quasi-periodic solutions. We also give a qualitative description of the phase space and provide results on the linear stability of solutions for the spin–orbit and spin–spin problems. We conclude by providing a comparison between the full and the Keplerian models with particular reference to the interaction between the rotational and orbital motions.