N-Body Models of Collisionless Systems

Informally, a self-gravitating system is collisionless if the granularity of its mass distribution does not influence its evolution. Galaxies, in particular, are expected to evolve collisionlessly even over timescales much longer than a Hubble time. This chapter describes an N-body algorithm for simulating the evolution of collisionless systems.

Subject Headings

• Collisionless Stellar Systems
  • The Collisionless Boltzmann Equation
  • Solution by Monte-Carlo Method
• Hierarchical N-Body Methods
  • Tree Structure
  • Force Calculation
  • Time Integration
• The TREE Code
  • Representation of Tree Structure
  • Tree Construction
  • Force Calculation
  • Vectorized Force Calculation
• A Tree Code Users Guide
  • Compiling the Code
  • Running the Code
  • Testing the Code

Distribution

You can get a postscript copy of this paper by clicking here.

Last modified: January 6, 1995