Study of 3D dynamics of gravitating systems using supercomputers: Methods and applications

Abstract

We describe parallel numerical code for solving problems of stellar dynamics. The code is based on numerical solving of Poisson and Vlasov equations in cylindrical coordinates using particle-in-cells method. The code is designed for use on supercomputers with distributed memory. We consider different possible strategies of parallelization according to initial technical parameters of numerical methods and physical conditions of the model. We present results of numerical simulations for the following problems of stellar dynamics: investigation of influence of central potential on the vertical motions of thin gravitating disk; stability of uniform sphere with anisotropic distribution of velocity; numerical approximation of equilibrium states of gravitating systems. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.