Billy Quarles

     Our group develops code in C++/Java to simulate the motion of three bodies. We assume the third body to have negligible mass compared to the others. We simulate systems in the inertial, as well as, rotating reference frames.
     Previously our group has performed stability analysis using methods devised by Hamilton. These methods use the inherent geometry of the system to produce and effective eccentricity via the Hodagraph method. Using this method, previous conclusions of stability limits were verified and some new conclusions have been drawn.
     Over the past year we have been using Lyapunov stability theory to determine stability, instability, and chaos of a parameter space. The parameter space contains the mass ratio of the two larger bodies and the distance ratio of the third smaller body.