Integration Methods where Force is Obtained from the Smoothed Gravitational Field

Abstract

Many problems in stellar dynamics involve phenomena occurring in inhomogeneous systems in which the interaction between the particles is fully described by a self-consistent field operating in phase space. Because the particles interact by means of the long-range Coulomb force, each particle is under the simultaneous influence of a large number of other particles. Therefore, stellar systems will respond to any perturbation in a collective manner, and a study of such systems is concerned essentially with the N-body problem.