Yes, and they usually use specially-designed code with *very* high
order integrators (like 12th or 13th order), unlike large-N researches
who are often content with 4th or even 2nd order integrators. That's
because we're interested in fundamentally different things: solar
system researchers want to integrate paths of specific objects very
accurately over a very long time; useful galactic dynamics research
can be done by just following the essentually "fluid" motion of the
huge number of particles. (This isn't a flame; I just wanted to
make it clear for interested bystanders.)
>To model globular clusters with unsoftened particles (ie including
>2bod relaxation) is not possible,
You mean not possible with current machines/techniques, or fundamentally
impossible, even in principle? I was under the impression that it's
only a matter of not enough CPU cycles to accurately model large-N
systems without softening.
>the HARP project is probably the closest. For those interested in
>collisionless dynamics, which still allows modeling of some
>interesting aspects of globulars, I have a working code that
>has done a full realisation of globular clusters, anything from
>Pal 1 to Omega Cen for, say, 1000 dynamical times - but it doesn't
>include two body relaxation and has limited application.
You lost me here. I thought globulars were highly collisional? How
can a collisionless code model globulars. (For the uninitiated:
``collisional'' essentially means ``high density'', where the paths
of individual particles can be substantially altered by close passes
of neighbors; this opposed to ``collisionless'' systems, where the
particle trajectories are governed almost solely by some global
potential. The solar system is an extreme example of a collisionless
system.)
>We're in a race with the cosmology code people for the largest N,
>our (non-interacting) galaxy simulations have hit N=10^7 and we'll
>get to N=10^8 in a matter of months.
Wow! Surely this is *with* softening, though? When I said "ideal"
N-body, I meant that each particle in the simulation is representative
of one particle in the system -- thus you wouldn't use softening.
-- "The money spent on the Mars Observer was not sent to Mars. A few tons of metal were. The engineering lessons and experience from building the spacecraft and instruments will remain on Earth to benefit future missions if we choose to undertake them." -- Steve Collins || Wayne Hayes wayne@csri.utoronto.ca