Issue |
A&A
Volume 375, Number 2, August IV 2001
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | 711 - 738 | |
Section | Section $secnum inconnue | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20010706 | |
Published online | 15 August 2001 |
A new Monte Carlo code for star cluster simulations
I. Relaxation
1
Observatoire de Genève, Chemin des Maillettes 51, 1290 Sauverny, Switzerland
2
Physikalisches Institut, Universität Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, 3012 Bern, Switzerland
Corresponding author: M. Freitag, Marc.Freitag@obs.unige.ch
Received:
8
February
2001
Accepted:
23
April
2001
We have developed a new simulation code aimed at studying the
stellar dynamics of a galactic central star cluster surrounding a
massive black hole. In order to include all the relevant physical
ingredients (2-body relaxation, stellar mass spectrum, collisions,
tidal disruption, ...), we chose to revive a numerical scheme
pioneered by Hénon in the 70's (Hénon [CITE],a; Hénon [CITE].
It is basically a Monte Carlo resolution of the Fokker-Planck
equation. It can cope with any stellar mass spectrum or velocity
distribution. Being a particle-based method, it also allows one to take
stellar collisions into account in a very realistic way. This first
paper covers the basic version of our code which treats the
relaxation-driven evolution of a stellar cluster without a central BH.
A technical description of the code is presented, as well as the
results of test computations. Thanks to the use of a binary tree to
store potential and rank information and of variable time steps,
cluster models with up to particles can be simulated
on a standard personal computer and the CPU time required scales
as
with the particle number
. Furthermore, the number of simulated stars needs not
be equal to
but can be arbitrarily larger. A
companion paper will treat further physical elements, mostly
relevant to galactic nuclei.
Key words: methods: numerical / stellar dynamics / galaxies: nuclei / galaxies: star clusters
© ESO, 2001
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