Morse Index and Bifurcation for Figure-Eight Choreographies of the Equal Mass Three-Body Problem

We report on the Morse index and periodic solutions bifurcating from the figure-eight choreography for the equal mass three-body problem under homogeneous potential -1/r(a) for a >= 0, and under Lennard-Jones (LJ) type potential 1/r(12) - 1/r(6), where r is a distance between bodies. It is shown that the Morse index changes at a bifurcation point and all solutions bifurcating are approximated by variational functions responsible for the change of the Morse index. Inversely we observed bifurcation occurs at every point where the Morse index changes for the figure-eight choreography under -1/r(a), and for alpha solution under the LJ type potential, where alpha solution is a figure-eight choreography tending to that under -1/r(6) for an infinitely large period. Thus, to our numerical studies, change of the Morse index is not only necessary but also a sufficient condition for bifurcation for these choreographies. Further, we observed that the change of the Morse index is equal to the number of bifurcated solutions regarding solutions with congruent orbits as the same solution.