English

Instability of the Gravitational N-Body Problem in the Large-N Limit

Astrophysics 2009-11-07 v3

Abstract

We use a systolic N-body algorithm to evaluate the linear stability of the gravitational N-body problem for N up to 1.3 x 10^5, two orders of magnitude greater than in previous experiments. For the first time, a clear ~ln N-dependence of the perturbation growth rate is seen. The e-folding time for N = 10^5 is roughly 1/20 of a crossing time.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0205538,
  title  = {Instability of the Gravitational N-Body Problem in the Large-N Limit},
  author = {Marc Hemsendorf and David Merritt},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0205538},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal