Related papers: Switching integrators reversibly in the astrophysi…
We present new almost time-reversible integrators for solution of planetary systems consisting of "planets" and a dominant mass ("star"). The algorithms can be considered adaptive generalizations of the Wisdom--Holman method, in which all…
Calculating the long term solution of ordinary differential equations, such as those of the $N$-body problem, is central to understanding a wide range of dynamics in astrophysics, from galaxy formation to planetary chaos. Because generally…
Computational efficiency demands discretised, hierarchically organised, and individually adaptive time-step sizes (known as the block-step scheme) for the time integration of N-body models. However, most existing N-body codes adapt…
We present a new symplectic integrator designed for collisional gravitational $N$-body problems which makes use of Kepler solvers. The integrator is also reversible and conserves 9 integrals of motion of the $N$-body problem to machine…
At a fundamental level most physical equations are time reversible. In this paper we propose an integrator that preserves this property at the discrete computational level. Our simulations can be run forward and backwards and trace the same…
This paper describes a fourth-order integration algorithm for the gravitational N-body problem based on discrete Lagrangian mechanics. When used with shared timesteps, the algorithm is momentum conserving and symplectic. We generalize the…
The time step criterion plays a crucial role in direct N-body codes. If not chosen carefully, it will cause a secular drift in the energy error. Shared, adaptive time step criteria commonly adopt the minimum pairwise time step, which…
We present a simple choice of integration variables that can be used to exploit the near-integrable character of problems in celestial mechanics. The approach is based on the well-known principle of variation of parameters: instead of…
Numerical solutions to Newton's equations of motion for chaotic self gravitating systems of more than 2 bodies are often regarded to be irreversible. This is due to the exponential growth of errors introduced by the integration scheme and…
It has previously been shown that varying the numerical timestep during a symplectic orbital integration leads to a random walk in energy and angular momentum, destroying the phase space-conserving property of symplectic integrators. Here…
Symplectic integration algorithms are well-suited for long-term integrations of Hamiltonian systems because they preserve the geometric structure of the Hamiltonian flow. However, this desirable property is generally lost when adaptive…
We present a family of modified Hermite integrators of arbitrary order possessing superior behaviour for the integration of Keplerian and near-Keplerian orbits. After recounting the derivation of Hermite N-body integrators of arbitrary…
Symplectic integrators are the tool of choice for many researchers studying dynamical systems because of their good long-term energy conservation properties. For systems with a dominant central mass, symplectic integrators are also highly…
Symplectic integration algorithms have become popular in recent years in long-term orbital integrations because these algorithms enforce certain conservation laws that are intrinsic to Hamiltonian systems. For problems with large variations…
By combining a standard symmetric, symplectic integrator with a new step size controller, we provide an integration scheme that is symmetric, reversible and conserves the values of the constants of motion. This new scheme is appropriate for…
$N$-body integrations are used to model a wide range of astrophysical dynamics, but they suffer from errors which make their orbits diverge exponentially in time from the correct orbits. Over long time-scales, their reliability needs to be…
The method of choice for integrating the equations of motion of the general N-body problem has been to use an individual time step scheme. For the sake of efficiency, block time steps have been the most popular, where all time step sizes…
Symplectic N-body integrators are widely used to study problems in celestial mechanics. The most popular algorithms are of 2nd and 4th order, requiring 2 and 6 substeps per timestep, respectively. The number of substeps increases rapidly…
We introduce a class of fourth order symplectic algorithms that are ideal for doing long time integration of gravitational few-body problems. These algorithms have only positive time steps, but require computing the force gradient in…
In this note we approach the classical, Newtonian, gravitational $N$-body problem by mean of a new, original numerical integration method. After a short summary of the fundamental characteristics of the problem, including a sketch of some…