Abstract
A system of three particles undergoing inelastic collisions in arbitrary spatial dimensions is studied with the aim of establishing the domain of ``inelastic collapse''---an infinite number of collisions which take place in a finite time. Analytic and simulation results show that for a sufficiently small restitution coefficient,
0≤r<7−4
3
–
√
≈0.072
, collapse can occur. In one dimension, such a collapse is stable against small perturbations within this entire range. In higher dimensions, the collapse can be stable against small variations of initial conditions, within a smaller
r
range,
0≤r<9−4
5
–
√
≈0.056
.