Validity and the complete angular equation. The Lagrange planetary equations here describe a planar, circular-planet, small-orbital eccentricity, weakly perturbed exterior mean-motion resonance. Require , , one isolated slowly varying resonant argument, perturbation times long compared with an orbital period, and no close planetary encounters. Other resonant harmonics and short-period terms must be negligible; coefficients may be frozen only across a narrow range of semi-major axis. Take , or in a reduced integer ratio. Exactly makes the longitude of periapsis undefined, so the displayed angular variables must then be replaced by nonsingular eccentricity vector components.
Neglecting the perturbation to the accumulated mean longitude gives ; this is an accumulated-phase approximation, not differentiation of a fictitious expression while discarding . With ,
Differentiating, using and the supplied orbital element equations, gives the full result within this constant-coefficient model:
An equivalent formula replaces the last two terms in brackets by . No derivatives of are included because they were specified as constants.
A full fixed point requires and . Hence or , with its corresponding detuned semi-major axis fixed by
At either point . The longitude of periapsis still precesses, so the fixed point refers to the reduced resonant dynamics.
Linear stability analysis and encounter geometry. Linearizing the full equation about a fixed point gives
For , is a center equilibrium and zero is a saddle equilibrium. For , is always a center equilibrium, while zero is a saddle equilibrium if
At sufficiently small orbital eccentricity the full truncated equations instead admit a center at zero as well; equality is a degenerate case requiring higher-order analysis. Thus an unconditional instability claim at zero does not follow from the full equation. In the usual fixed-eccentricity weak-resonance regime the inequality holds and the stable libration center is for either order.
The physical explanation is resonance protection. At equal mean longitudes, the conjunction direction relative to periapsis obeys modulo . For , places conjunction near periapsis, where the exterior particle comes closest to the planet; places it near apoapsis. For , zero includes both apsidal conjunctions, one of them near periapsis, whereas places the two conjunction branches near quadrature. The protected arrangements give restoring kicks in the positive- leading-harmonic model. This geometric explanation is conditional on its non-crossing, small-orbital eccentricity approximation; it does not override the low- term retained in the full stability calculation.
Small resonant-argument librations. Define the nominal resonant semi-major axis and the displaced center by
This follows by expanding and taking . It gives the requested initial semi-major axis to first order in the precession-induced detuning; and .
For the pendulum approximation of a mean-motion resonance, also require fractional changes in small across a libration, and precession terms small compared with . In particular for makes the extra full-equation curvature negligible; for , small fractional eccentricity changes require . Freeze in the leading restoring coefficient and set
Then obeys simple harmonic motion. Using , and integrating the remaining Lagrange planetary equations gives
The omitted apsidal modulation comes from higher perturbative orders and . All expressions are leading resonant approximations, valid while the omitted fractional changes remain small. The small-libration phase portrait is
with period . The semi-major axis half-width is and the orbital eccentricity half-width is .
Dividing the original and equations gives the exact invariant of their retained terms,
Thus the – plot is a segment of this increasing curve traversed back and forth, not a closed ellipse. Locally its slope is .
Finite amplitude and the separatrix. Keep the same weak-resonance approximation but allow to be finite. The leading angular equation is , or . Multiplication by gives
This resonant pendulum energy is constant in the pendulum approximation of a mean-motion resonance. It is not an exact integral of the earlier full equation when and its restoring coefficient vary: the term alone prevents that conclusion in general.
For the phase portrait has closed libration curves around , with
where is the complete elliptic integral of the first kind. The largest speed is and the leading semi-major axis half-width is . As , the energy approaches , the separatrix through the saddles at zero and ; the particle spends increasingly long intervals near those saddles. With ,
At exactly , , the particle stays at the unstable fixed point in the ideal model. Nonstationary separatrix trajectories approach the saddle only in infinite time; above separatrix energy, the resonant argument circulates and resonance protection is lost. These distinctions matter when describing the limiting motion.
Figure 1.
Resonant pendulum libration curves, separatrix and circulation, with the eccentricity versus semimajor-axis invariant
. Details.
Write for the physical planet radius and for the debris-cloud radius; the source uses for both even though their stated size orderings are opposite. A central transit duration of a small planet on a nearly circular Kepler orbit is . Kepler's third law, with , gives
A noncentral planetary exoplanet transit is shorter, so within the small-radius and nearly circular approximations, a duration requiring
is too long for the planet alone and favors extended debris. For a central cloud transit with , the path length is approximately . Using the Hill radius gives , hence the Hill-cloud transit mass estimate
This equality assumes a central cloud chord. An orbit described merely as nearly edge-on need not have central cloud crossings. If its projected cloud impact distance is , the measured half-chord is , so the boxed mass is multiplied by . It is a lower estimate when that geometry is unknown.
For the dynamical calculation use , , and . The derivatives in the supplied Lagrange planetary equations hold the other osculating orbital elements fixed:
Since , the physical mean-longitude equation for a first-order resonant term is
The source's epoch notation needs care when varies. Literally differentiating adds ; one cannot retain that definition and also identify the printed with . A consistent version writes and assigns the displayed correction to . Equivalently, the canonical mean-longitude equation for a first-order resonant term follows from the disturbing function directly. The result for is the intended physical equation under that convention.
Away from resonant-argument libration, neglect changes in on one slow cycle to this order. With the reference mean motion, the signed slow frequency is
This is the near-resonant transit-timing superperiod. Choose . Differentiating with the semi-major axis equation gives
Let and . Direct integration gives
with zero initial mean longitude. The constant and linear terms are absorbed into the fitted transit ephemeris: the measured mean frequency is . This distinction avoids mistaking an arbitrary initial frequency for the long-term fitted period.
For , the double-integrated frequency term dominates the direct term provided stays finite. Relative to the fitted linear ephemeris, gives
Here denotes the fitted mean period at the retained order. The signed-frequency convention fixes the phase sign. Replacing by changes the sign of the signed when needed; a nonnegative amplitude has
Using a signed instead gives the source's signed proportionality . The leading implicit transit equation can equally use inside the sine, since the difference is higher order in the perturbation. This is the eccentricity-enhanced near-resonant transit-timing variation; its derivation assumes small longitude oscillations, at fixed resonance coefficients, and the effectively fixed eccentricity used in this truncated model. Dominance over forced-eccentricity timing terms typically also requires at fixed . A full transit calculation also includes forced orbital eccentricity and the conversion from mean longitude to the actual sky-crossing angle. Those are lower order in this eccentricity-enhanced regime, rather than identically absent; broader near-resonant formulas are derived by Lithwick, Xie and Wu.
Inside a mean-motion resonance, undergoes resonant-argument libration and its evolution must be solved together with . The constant circulation frequency and the associated expansion then fail. At approximately fixed eccentricity, the resonant resonant pendulum approximation has libration frequency of order , up to numerical factors. The transit-timing variation follows that libration period and depends on its libration amplitude of a resonant argument. Exactly at a resonant equilibrium there need be no libration signal; near a separatrix the period grows, and eccentricity dynamics can modify the simple estimate. Resonant amplitudes remain controlled by the bounded resonant motion rather than diverging as the circulating detuning tends to zero.
Here both the divergence and vorticity vanish:
The flow is incompressible and irrotational. With and ,
The streamlines are the level sets . To determine the arrows, put and . A particle satisfies , . Thus the separatrix approaches the stagnation point at the origin, whereas leaves it; the other streamlines are hyperbolas following those asymptotes. The origin itself is a stationary particle.
Figure 1.
Streamlines and directions for the incompressible irrotational flow
. Details.
The adiabatic invariance of the action applies when the frequency changes by only a small fraction during one oscillation and no separatrix is encountered. A convenient condition is
Then
Consequently
If is the displacement amplitude, , and hence
Thus a slowly stiffened spring raises the energy as while reducing the amplitude as .
The linear mode has frequency squared , so . To resolve the small frequency near threshold, write
The leading equation
and the initial data give
At , the equation for has a forcing whose component is
The Fredholm solvability condition removes this secular term and yields the slow amplitude equation
It has the conserved energy
The potential has maxima at
A periodic orbit launched from , exists only when that turning point lies inside the two maxima, namely
At equality the orbit is the separatrix; below it, the assumed real periodic oscillation is lost. Therefore
The time-independent Lagrangian conserves . Substitute into the kinetic energy to obtain
This is the angle-dependent effective inertia of a pendulum with a freely sliding support. Solving for the speed gives
On a monotone increasing segment, the travel time is therefore
The printed oriented integral assumes that increasing-angle branch. For decreasing motion use or interchange the limits; if a turning point lies between the two events, split the trajectory into monotone segments and add their positive times. The numerator remains positive for positive masses. At an ordinary turning point the inverse-square-root singularity is integrable; reaching the unstable upright separatrix takes infinite time.
Keeping one resonant harmonic and treating orbital eccentricity as fixed reduces mean-motion resonance dynamics to a physical pendulum equation. For the inner first-order term , leading Lagrange planetary equations give . Around its stable phase, the small-amplitude libration frequency is . Evolution of eccentricity, other harmonics, and approach to a separatrix change this approximation.
For the nondimensional simple pendulum , the separatrix has energy . Starting at with velocity , its time to angle is . The saddle at angle is approached only as time tends to infinity.
// Target: classical-mechanics.bigb
Resonant pendulum energy 2026-10-06
For with constant , multiplication by gives the conserved energy . The stable center is ; the separatrix has . Below it the resonant argument librates and above it the angle circulates. This is an invariant of the constant-coefficient pendulum approximation of a mean-motion resonance, not of arbitrary coupled orbital element evolution.
For , , the invariant sign sheet has after one iterate. There obeys the displayed one-dimensional map. A negative fixed lifts to two symmetry-related fixed points, while a positive fixed lifts to one period-two orbit. The origin of the return map represents the separatrix, where the flow return time diverges, and is not an ordinary finite-period orbit of a group action.
The zero-relative-speed limit of the Sine-Gordon kink-antikink scattering solution is a separatrix at twice the rest-kink energy. A Sine-Gordon Bäcklund transformation of the static kink with equal parameter gives , for , hence the displayed solution. The two asymptotic transitions separate logarithmically in time and their speeds tend to zero; this is not a finite-period Sine-Gordon breather.
Uniform disc pivoted at its rim Created 2026-10-07 Updated 2026-10-20
A uniform circular disc of radius and mass , pivoted on a perpendicular axis through its rim, has moment of inertia by the parallel axis theorem. Its hanging small oscillations have period . Measured from the upright position, the falling equation is . Exact upright rest remains an unstable equilibrium; the energy level of that state describes a limiting separatrix after perturbation, with . The center acceleration and pivot reaction follow by resolving radial and tangential components.
Vortex-pair renormalization flow Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-18
In the dilute-vortex description of the two-dimensional XY model, is dimensionless stiffness and is phase vortex fugacity. A phase vortex has logarithmic energy , while its placement entropy is . Small phase vortex pairs screen the logarithmic interaction, lowering the stiffness. Near , the rescaled variables , obey , to leading order. The invariant leads to an essential correlation-length singularity , not a finite power-law exponent.
Here increases toward larger observation distances, and the vortex fugacity is a dimensionless weight per unit core, conventionally initialized as with the microscopic measure fixed. Numerical coefficients depend on this normalization. In the displayed convention, differentiating using the original flow gives
Only replacing the prefactor by one near gives the scaled leading model. Its first integral follows directly:
Thus this first integral belongs to the stated scaled model, not exactly to the original equations. For , the critical separatrix is . The bound side has and flows to , ; the unbinding side ultimately runs to large vortex fugacity, where the dilute approximation ceases to be quantitative.
To derive the unusual correlation length scaling without fitting an exponent, write the invariant on a nearby unbinding trajectory as . Then and the time to cross fixed small limits to is . If a physical one-parameter path crosses the separatrix transversely, its is proportional to the positive reduced temperature. Since distance grows as , this gives , with a nonuniversal . This is the dimensionless-temperature form of the singularity above.