Abstract: view Abstract Citations (135) References (14) Co-Reads Similar Papers Volume Content Graphics Metrics Export Citation NASA/ADS Building a Better Leapfrog Hut, Piet ; Makino, Jun ; McMillan, Steve Abstract In stellar dynamical computer simulations, as well as other types of simulations using particles, time step size is often held constant in order to guarantee a high degree of energy conservation. In many applications, allowing the time step size to change in time can offer a great saving in computational cost, but variable-size time steps usually imply a substantial degradation in energy conservation. We present a meta-algorithm' for choosing time steps in such a way as to guarantee time symmetry in any integration scheme, thus allowing vastly improved energy conservation for orbital calculations with variable time steps. We apply the algorithm to the familiar leapfrog scheme, and generalize to higher order integration schemes, showing how the stability properties of the fixed-step leapfrog scheme can be extended to higher order, variable-step integrators such as the Hermite method. We illustrate the remarkable properties of these time-symmetric integrators for the case of a highly eccentric elliptical Kepler orbit and discuss applications to more complex problems. Publication: The Astrophysical Journal Pub Date: April 1995 DOI: 10.1086/187844 Bibcode: 1995ApJ...443L..93H Keywords: Algorithms; Astrodynamics; Celestial Mechanics; Energy Conservation; Star Clusters; Step Functions; Computer Programs; Computerized Simulation; Dynamic Models; Elliptical Orbits; Astrophysics; CELESTIAL MECHANICS; STELLAR DYNAMICS; GALAXIES: STAR CLUSTERS full text sources ADS |
Publication Year: 1995
Publication Date: 1995-04-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 199
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