The Free Euler Rigid Body Revisited

Abstract

We review from a different perspective the approach and solution to the torque-free Euler equations, also called the free asymmetric top equations. We aim to simplify and broaden the study of the asymmetric free rigid body. This is an old but important integrable problem that has two first integrals: the energy and the angular momentum. We reduce this problem by eliminating the time as the independent variable in the three autonomous Euler equations written in cylindrical dimensionless variables, which allows a geometric study of the solution as a function of the cylindrical angle variable ψ, by means of continuous deformations dependent on the two independent parameters κ and e0. The parameter space is divided into six disjoint regions, whose boundaries are the separatices and degenerated cases. The solutions are given in terms of trigonometric functions of the independent cylindric angle ψ.