The relativistic Pythagorean three-body problem

Understand

We study the influence of relativity on the chaotic properties and dynamical outcomes of an unstable triple system; the Pythagorean three-body problem.

• To this end, we extend the Brutus N-body code to include Post-Newtonian pairwise terms up to 2.5 order, and the first order Taylor expansion to the Einstein-Infeld-Hoffmann equations of motion.
• The degree to which our system is relativistic depends on the scaling of the total mass (the unit size was 1 parsec).
• Using the Brutus method of convergence, we test for time-reversibility in the conservative regime, and demonstrate that we are able to obtain definitive solutions to the relativistic three-body problem.