View source for Physics:McGehee transformation

The '''McGehee transformation''' was introduced by Richard McGehee to study the triple collision singularity in the [[Physics:N-body problem|n-body problem]].

The transformation blows up the single point in [[Physics:Phase space|phase space]] where the collision occurs into a collision [[Manifold|manifold]], the phase space point is cut out and in its place a smooth manifold is pasted.  This allows the phase space singularity to be studied in detail.

What McGehee found was a distorted sphere with four horns pulled out to infinity and the points at their tips deleted. McGehee then went on to study the flow on the collision manifold.

== References ==
*Celestial Encounters, The Origins of Chaos and Stability, Diacu/Holmes, {{ISBN|0-691-00545-1}}, Princeton Science Library

[[Category:Classical mechanics]]

{{Sourceattribution|McGehee transformation}}