Monte-Carlo Simulations of Globular Cluster Evolution - I. Method and Test Calculations
Abstract
We present a new parallel supercomputer implementation of the Monte-Carlo method for simulating the dynamical evolution of globular star clusters. Our method is based on a modified version of Henon's Monte-Carlo algorithm for solving the Fokker-Planck equation. Our code allows us to follow the evolution of a cluster containing up to 5x10^5 stars to core collapse in < 40 hours of computing time. In this paper we present the results of test calculations for clusters with equal-mass stars, starting from both Plummer and King model initial conditions. We consider isolated as well as tidally truncated clusters. Our results are compared to those obtained from approximate, self-similar analytic solutions, from direct numerical integrations of the Fokker-Planck equation, and from direct N-body integrations performed on a GRAPE-4 special-purpose computer with N=16384. In all cases we find excellent agreement with other methods, establishing our new code as a robust tool for the numerical study of globular cluster dynamics using a realistic number of stars.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9909115,
title = {Monte-Carlo Simulations of Globular Cluster Evolution - I. Method and Test Calculations},
author = {Kriten Joshi and Frederic Rasio and Simon Portegies Zwart},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9909115},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
35 pages, including 8 figures, submitted to ApJ. Revised version