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SUMMARY:Contact Geometry in Dynamics: the 3-Body Problem - Prof Gabriel Pa
 ternain
DTSTART:20120220T083000Z
DTEND:20120220T093000Z
UID:TALK36605@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Mary Fortune
DESCRIPTION:We have known for a long time how to write down the equations 
 of motion of a satellite that moves under the influence of the gravitation
 al fields of the Earth and the Moon\, but surprisingly\, we still do not f
 ully understand the long term behaviour of the satellite since we cannot e
 xplicitly solve the equations. At the end of the 19th century\, Poincare n
 oticed the presence of chaos in the system and kick-started the modern the
 ory of dynamical systems. Recently a new type of geometry called contact g
 eometry (the odd dimensional relative of symplectic geometry) has been pro
 posed as a tool for understanding this old problem in celestial mechanics.
  In the talk I will try to explain what contact geometry is and why it is 
 relevant for the 3-body problem.
LOCATION:Winstanley Lecture Theatre\, Trinity College
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