Consider the motion of a point mass under the influence of an attractive central force. The potential for the force is proportional to the inverse distance from the central point O to the point mass. For every value of the angular momentum L of the object around O we have an equilibrium point in the radial direction, which corresponds to a circular orbit. We now consider a small perturbation of a circular orbit into a low eccentricity ellipse with the same angular momentum. If we look at the radial distance from O to the object on the elliptical orbit, we see that the distance changes from some r m i n to r m a x with some frequency f . If at L 1 = 1 kg ⋅ m 2 / s we get f 1 = f ( L 1 ) = 1 Hz , find the frequency f 2 for L 2 = 1 0 kg ⋅ m 2 / s in Hz .
Bonus thought: The value of the frequency at L 3 = 0 (without angular momentum) is defined as the bare frequency. Is this a finite value?
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For that kind of potential, the equilibrium in the radial direction corresponds to the radius of the circular motion, and the small fluctuation will give you a "slight" ellipse, which means the time period of the oscillation is almost equal to the time period of the circular orbit. Consider at the circular orbit:
m v 2 / r ∼ 1 / r 2 ⇒ v 2 r = const
Using that L ∼ v r and f ∼ v / r , we get L 3 f = const , so the frequency is proportional to inverse angular momentum scale cube!
We can write it as:
f ( L ) = f ( L 1 ) ( L 1 / L ) 3
So, we get f ( L 2 ) = 0 . 0 0 1 Hz
At L 3 = 0 , the bare frequency goes to infinity. Indeed, it shows us that sometimes the bare value of a quantity in theoretical physics might not have any physical meaning!
Yes for the circular motion and motion here have the same symmetry. So f varies inverse as L 3
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We can write the total energy of the system as a function of the distance from the center:
U ( x ) = P / x + ( L 2 ) / 2 m x 2
So we can get the frequency for small oscillations:
d U / d x = − P / x 2 − ( L 2 ) / m x 3 = U ′ ( x )
U ′ ( r ) = 0 implies that r is the equilibrium distance
r = − ( L 2 ) / m P
Now we apply this "r" to U''(x) = dU'/dx
U ′ ′ ( r ) = 2 P / r 3 + 3 ( L 2 ) / m r 4
U ′ ′ ( r ) = 2 ( P 4 ) ( m 3 ) / L 6 + 3 ( P 4 ) ( m 3 ) / L 6 = 5 ( P 4 ) ( m 3 ) / L 6
We can use that the frequency for small oscillations can be written as
w = ( U ′ ′ ( r ) / m ) 1 / 2
w = ( P 2 ) m ( 5 1 / 2 ) / L 3
Note that this frequency defines the change on the maximums and minimums of the trajectory, so we can use that:
f ( L ) L − 3
So
f 1 / f 2 = ( L 1 / L 2 ) − 3
f 2 = 0 . 0 0 1 H z