Singular dynamics under a weak potential on a sphere

Abstract

We give a detailed analytical description of the global dynamics of a point mass moving on a sphere under the action of a logarithmic potential. We perform a McGehee-type blow-up in order to cope with the singularity of the potential when the point mass goes through the singularity. In addition we investigate the rest-points of the flow, the invariant (stable and unstable) manifolds and we give a complete dynamical description of the motion.