Precession on a rotating saddle: a gyro force in an inertial frame

Oleg Kirillov, Mark Levi

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

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Abstract

Particles in rotating saddle potentials exhibit precessional motion which, up to now, has been explained by explicit computation. We show that this precession is due to a hidden gyroscopic force which, unlike the standard Coriolis force, is present in the inertial frame. We do so by finding a hodograph-like “guiding center” transformation using the method of normal form, which yields a simplified equation for the guiding center of the trajectory that coincides with the equation of the Foucault’s pendulum. In this sense, a particle trapped in the symmetric rotating saddle trap is, effectively, a Foucault’s pendulum, but in the inertial frame.
Original languageEnglish
Number of pages405
Publication statusPublished - 1 Aug 2016
Event24th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ICTAM2016) - Montreal, Canada
Duration: 1 Aug 2016 → …

Conference

Conference24th International Congress of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ICTAM2016)
Period1/08/16 → …

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