Astronomy 735
NUMERICAL STELLAR DYNAMICS
Joshua Barnes
Spring 1994
I will discuss methods for simulating galaxies (or other collisionless
stellar-dynamical systems). The material will be fairly self-
contained, although some programming experience (in C or Fortran) and
a little background knowledge of galactic dynamics will be helpful. I
plan to focus on modern techniques for three-dimensional systems.
These will be illustrated by examples from the literature, including
simulations of dynamical instabilities, secular evolution, collisions,
and mergers of galaxies.
Topics to be discussed include:
- Fundamental Equations of Stellar Dynamics
- properties of the Collisionless Boltzmann Equation
- solution by Monte-Carlo (N-body) method
- Design and Implementation of N-body Codes
- force calculation
- time integration
- Generation of Initial Conditions
- spherical systems with known f(E,J)
- approximate methods for spheres and disks
- Simulation Procedures and Quality Control
- chosing simulation parameters
- discreteness effects
- Analysis of Simulation Results
- beyond particle plots: N-body diagnostics
- orbit structure of triaxial systems
There will be two lectures per week; the first is tentatively
scheduled for April 5, 1994.
Joshua E. Barnes (barnes@zeno.ifa.hawaii.edu)
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