SUPERBOX - an efficient code for collisionless galactic dynamics
Abstract
We present SUPERBOX, a particle-mesh code with high resolution sub-grids and an NGP (nearest grid point) force-calculation scheme based on the second derivatives of the potential. SUPERBOX implements a fast low-storage FFT-algorithm, giving the possibility to work with millions of particles on desk-top computers. Test calculations show energy and angular momentum conservation to one part in 10 5 per crossing-time. The effects of grid and numerical relaxation remain negligible, even when these calculations cover a Hubble-time of evolution. As the sub-grids follow the trajectories of individual galaxies, the code allows a highly resolved treatment of interactions in clusters of galaxies, such as high-velocity encounters between elliptical galaxies and the tidal disruption of dwarf galaxies. Excellent agreement is obtained in a comparison with a direct-summation N-body code running on special-purpose GRAPE 3 hardware. The orbital decay of satellite galaxies due to dynamical friction obtained with SUPERBOX agrees with Chandrasekhar's treatment when the Coulomb logarithm ln Λ≈1.5.
- Publication:
-
New Astronomy
- Pub Date:
- September 2000
- DOI:
- 10.1016/S1384-1076(00)00032-4
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0007226
- Bibcode:
- 2000NewA....5..305F
- Keywords:
-
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- NewA, in press (33 pages, 16 figs, LaTeX)