Gravitational N-Body Simulations: Tools and Algorithms

Cambridge Monographs on Mathematical Physics

by Sverre J. Aarseth

This self-contained book presents basic methods of numerical simulation of gravitational systems, with applications in astronomy and cosmology. The first half of the book presents and explains the fundamental mathematical tools needed to describe the dynamics of a large number of mutually attractive particles. Particular attention is given to the techniques needed to model known planetary and astrophysical phenomena such as Hubble motion. The second half of the book demonstrates how to develop clear and elegant algorithms for models of gravitational systems.

430 pages, Hardcover

First published October 22, 1999

About the author

Sverre Johannes Aarseth was a Norwegian research scientist at the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge. Aarseth spent his retirement as an active researcher. He dedicated his career to the development of N-body codes ("a code" in astrophysical jargon refers to a computer program or library or a group thereof). He is the author of the NBODY family of codes, the current iteration is NBODY7. His areas of research included the effects of stellar evolution in N-body codes, the influence of black holes on stellar systems, the evolution of globular clusters, and the use of GPUs to increase the speed of his codes.
Aarseth was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1986–87. He was awarded the 1998 Brouwer Award for his work on advancing dynamical astronomy. The asteroid 9836 Aarseth is named in his honour.
Outside of research, Aarseth's interests included mountaineering, trekking and wildlife. He was also a keen chess player, and was awarded the title International Master for Correspondence in 1981.

Reviews

[C. Marcos · Rating 5 out of 5]

The bible of direct methods in gravitational N-body simulations. Anyone working on the N-body problem should read this book. Incredibly useful. This is a very technical work written at the graduate level or higher. The author of this book has been working in the field of gravitational N-body simulations for more than 50 years and this book summarizes his contributions and explains the inner workings of his computer codes. It includes a very extensive bibliography.