Binet equation

Binet’s equation rewrites a central-force orbit using $u(\theta )=1/r$. If $\ell =m{r}^2\dot{\theta }$ is angular momentum and the potential is $V(r)$, then

For radial acceleration $-A/r^2-B/r^3$, conserved specific angular momentum $l$ and $u=1/r$ reduce the Binet equation to the displayed linear equation. If $l^2>B$, its angular oscillation frequency is $\sqrt{1-B/l^2}$; attraction proportional to $r^{-3}$ changes the apsidal angle. A zero of $u$ ends the physical positive-radius branch and corresponds to escape, not passage to a negative radius. A spatial self-intersection need not be a periodic return because velocity may differ.

Constant areal velocity gives constant specific angular momentum $l=r^2\dot{\theta }$, hence zero transverse acceleration and a central force. For a focus-based ellipse $u=1/r=(1+\epsilon \cos \theta )/A$, one has $u_{\theta \theta }+u=1/A$. The Binet equation then gives the displayed radial acceleration, proving an attractive inverse-square law. An orbit's shape alone does not specify its acceleration without a time law.

An attractive inverse-square force together with radial drag $-k\dot{r}/r^2$ preserves angular momentum $h=r^2\dot{\theta }$ but modifies the Binet equation for $u=1/r$ by a first derivative. For $k/|h|<2$ and $h\ne 0$, the reciprocal radius is a decaying oscillation about $p/h^2$. Forward angular distance $\mathrm{sgn}(h)(\theta -{\theta }_0)$ makes its damping sign explicit for either orbital orientation.

A bounded trajectory in the damped Binet equation with nonzero angular momentum asymptotically becomes circular. Energy loss is nonnegative in magnitude and vanishes only for zero radial velocity. The centrifugal effective potential energy excludes collision; bounded radius forces indefinitely increasing forward angular distance, so the reciprocal-radius oscillation decays. Escaping trajectories are excluded by the boundedness hypothesis.

ForBinet’s equation isIts circular orbits solve $K=u(1-r_{0}u{)}^2$; the branch $u<1/(3r_0)$ is stable and the branch $u>1/(3r_0)$ is unstable.