Suppose there are $N$ unit-mass particles whose initial positions are uniformly distributed in a unit-radius disk. Each particle is assigned a randomly oriented initial velocity vector $v_i$ of length $1$ (green below). ***Added**:* Robert Israel's incisive comment suggests that I should also stipulate that $\sum_i v_i = 0$. Then the particles act upon one another via inverse-square gravity. <hr /> [![NBodyRand8][1]][1] <br /> <sup> Dots show initial positions inside unit disk. Green vectors: initial velocity; red vectors: final velocity. </sup> <hr /> > ***Q***. What is the probability that $k \ge 1$ of the $N$ particles remain within a disk of some radius $R \ge 1$ forever? In the illustration above, $N=8$ and $R=3$. (But I do not trust my crude [simulations](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N-body_simulation).) I am wondering if the answer is: **zero**, independent of $k$ and $R$ and the gravitational constant? Perhaps the answer differs for points in $\mathbb{R}^2$ vs. points in $\mathbb{R}^3$ (or $\mathbb{R}^d$, $d > 3$)? [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/h6JSZ.jpg