Morse index properties of colliding solutions to the $N$-body problem

We study a singular Hamiltonian system with an α-homogeneous potential that contains, as a particular case, the classical N-body problem. We introduce a variational Morse-like index for a class of collision solutions and, using the asymptotic estimates near collisions, we prove the non-minimality of some special classes of colliding trajectories under suitable spectral conditions provided α is sufficiently away from zero. We then prove some minimality results for small values of the parameter α.