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Wikipedia gives the following Lagrangian for central force problem:

$$\mathcal{L}=\frac12 m \dot{\mathbf{r}}^2-V(r)$$

where $m$ is the mass of a smaller body orbiting around a stationary larger body. However, Taylor Classical Mechanics gives the different Lagrangian:

$$\mathcal{L}=\frac12 \mu \dot{\mathbf{r}}^2-V(r)$$

where $\mu$ is reduced mass between two bodies. I don't understand which one is correct.

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    $\begingroup$ Both can be correct depending on how you want to model the problem. Note that $\mathbf{r}$ is not the same position vector in both of those cases. For the reduced mass case $$\mathbf{r} = \mathbf{r_1} - \mathbf{r_2}$$ $\endgroup$
    – Amit
    Commented May 11, 2023 at 20:16

1 Answer 1

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Quite generally we can write $$\mathcal{L}=\frac12 m_1 \dot{\mathbf{r}_1}^2+\frac12 m_2 \dot{\mathbf{r}_2}^2-V(r)$$ where $\mathbf{r} = \mathbf{r_2} - \mathbf{r_1}$. Letting $\mathbf R$ denote the center of mass, i.e. $$(m_1 + m_2)\mathbf R = m_1 \mathbf r_1 + m_2 \mathbf r_2,$$ we can rewrite the Lagrangian as $$\mathcal{L}=\frac12(m_1+m_2)\dot{\mathbf R}^2+\frac12 \mu \dot{\mathbf{r}}^2-V(r).$$ The first term is a function of $\dot{\mathbf R}$ only, and its only contribution to the solution is a uniform translation of the center of mass. The remaining terms are the more interesting ones governing the relative motion of the masses. Wikipedia likely implicitly assumes $m_1 \gg m_2$, in which case $\mu \approx m_2$.

Edit: Upon reading the beginning of the relevant section of the Wikipedia article, the problem it describes is "a single particle with mass $m$ moving in a potential field $U(r)$", so it is effectively assuming one of the masses is kept fixed. The Lagrangian above describes the problem in which both masses are free to move.

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