Specific orbital energy ($\epsilon$)

The specific orbital energy is the mechanical energy per unit mass,Its sign distinguishes bound elliptic, marginal parabolic, and unbound hyperbolic Kepler orbits.

A weak perturbing relative acceleration $\mathbf{f}$ changes specific orbital energy at rate $\dot{\epsilon }=\mathbf{v}\cdot \mathbf{f}$. Since $\epsilon =-\mu /(2a)$ for a Kepler orbit,For a circular Kepler orbit under $\mathbf{f}=-\kappa \mathbf{v}+\mathbf{g}$ with constant $\mathbf{g}$, the constant-force term averages to zero over an unperturbed orbit. Thus $⟨\dot{a}⟩=-2\kappa a$. This is a leading-order orbital average; a strong constant force can distort the orbit instead.

For a Kepler orbit with semi-major axis $a$, the vis-viva equation isFor the convention that a hyperbolic Kepler orbit has positive semi-major-axis magnitude $a$, its final term instead has a plus sign.