A Comparison of the Dynamical Evolution of Planetary Systems: Proceedings of the Sixth Alexander von Humboldt Colloquium on Celestial Mechanics Bad Hofgastein (Austria), 21-27 March 2004

From Astrometry to Celestial Mechanics: Orbit Determination with Very Short Arcs.- On the stability regions of the Trojan asteroids.- Formal Integrals and Nekhoroshev Stability in a Mapping Model for the Trojan Asteroids.- The Observed Trojans and the Global Dynamics Around the Lagrangian Points of the Sun-Jupiter System.- Chaotic Diffusion and Effective Stability of Jupiter Trojans.- Analytical Proper Elements for the Hilda Asteroids I: Construction of a Formal Solution.- Stability of Co-Orbital Motion in Exoplanetary Systems.- The General Solution of the Planar Laplace Problem.- Dynamics of 2/1 Resonant Extrasolar Systems Application to Hd82943 and Gliese876.- Global Dynamics in Self-Consistent Models of Elliptical Galaxies.- Chaotic Motions in the Field of Two Fixed Black Holes.- Discrete Virial Theorem.- Local and Global Diffusion Along Resonant Lines in Discrete Quasi-Integrable Dynamical Systems.- The Role of Hyperbolic Invariant Sets in Stickiness Effects.- Stellar-Planetary Relations: Atmospheric Stability as a Prerequisite for Planetary Habitability.- Dynamic Habitability of Extrasolar Planetary Systems.

The papers in this volume cover a wide range of subjects covering the most recent developments in Celestial Mechanics from the theoretical point of nonlinear dynamical systems to the application to real problems. We emphasize the papers on the formation of planetary systems, their stability and also the problem of habitable zones in extrasolar planetary systems. A special topic is the stability of Trojans in our planetary system, where more and more realistic dynamical models are used to explain their complex motions: besides the important contribution from the theoretical point of view, the results of several numerical experiments unraveled the structure of the stable zone around the librations points.
This volume will be of interest to astronomers and mathematicians interested in Hamiltonian mechanics and in the dynamics of planetary systems.