2006/09/30 by O. Merlo, Olivier Merlo, Luis Benet +1
Chemistry · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Braid #Chemistry #Hamiltonian (control theory) #Massless particle #Materials science #Mathematics #Orbital Angular Momentum in Optics #Phase space #Physics #Quantum chaos and dynamical systems #Quantum mechanics #Ring (chemistry) #Scattering #Theoretical physics #astro-ph #nlin.CD
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s10569-006-9051-8
published as Cel. Mech. Dyn. Astron. 97 (2007), 49-72 · 22 pages; 16 (low quality) figures, some in color
openalex publication_date 2006/12/07 · arxiv created 2007/01/24 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We address the occurrence of narrow planetary rings and some of their structural properties, in particular when the rings are shepherded. We consider the problem as Hamiltonian \it scattering of a large number of non-interacting massless point particles in an effective potential. Using the existence of stable motion in scattering regions in this set up, we describe a mechanism in phase space for the occurrence of narrow rings and some consequences in their structure. We illustrate our approach with three examples. We find eccentric narrow rings displaying sharp edges, variable width and the appearance of distinct ring components (strands) which are spatially organized and entangled (braids). We discuss the relevance of our approach for narrow planetary rings.