On the "blue sky catastrophe" termination in the restricted four-body problem

The restricted three-body problem (R3BP) possesses the property that some classes of doubly asymptotic (i.e., homoclinic or heteroclinic) orbits are limit members of families of periodic orbits, this phenomenon has been known as the "blue sky catastrophe" termination principle. A similar case occurs in the restricted four body problem for the collinear equilibrium point . In the restricted four body problem with primaries in a triangle relative equilibrium, we show that the same phenomenon observed in the R3BP occurs. We prove that there exists a critical value of the mass parameter such that for a Hamiltonian Hopf bifurcation takes place. Moreover we show that for the stable and unstable manifolds of intersect transversally and the spectrum corresponds to a complex saddle. This proves that Henrard's theorem applies at least for close to . In particular there exists a family of periodic orbits having the homoclinic orbit as a limit.