Graph (or Group) in Astronomy

Is there an application of graph theory (or group theory) in astronomy. If there is, refer me some references.

• A distant recollection from the two courses in theoretical mechanics is that conservation laws in physics are manifestations of underlying symmetry groups: rotational invariance => conservation of angular momentum, invariance under translations => conservation of momentum, invariance under temporal translation => conservation of energy. I believe such conservation laws are ubiquitous in astronomy. – Jyrki Lahtonen Aug 24 '13 at 8:35
• @Jyrki: You're thinking of Noether's theorem. – Rahul Aug 24 '13 at 8:45
• The constellations on the star sky maps are drawn as typical graphs. :-) – Alex Ravsky Aug 24 '13 at 11:29

1 Answer

The GAP homepage recently got new sections where the GAP bibliography may be browsed by year and by MSC2010 subjects.

It happens that there is one publication using GAP in the category "Mechanics of particles and systems". Secondary MSC codes and the list of citations point that it is relevant to celestial mechanics:

• Ferrario, D. L. and Terracini, S., On the existence of collisionless equivariant minimizers for the classical $n$-body problem, Invent. Math., 155 (2) (2004), 305--362.

• See also the preprint http://arxiv.org/abs/math-ph/0302022v3

• Nice hints like a milky way at night:-) +1 – mrs Dec 20 '13 at 20:23