Gravitational dynamics tutorials & seminar
Summer semester 2024

Klaus Dolag, Rhea-Silvia Remus, Tadziu Hoffmann
Andreas Burkert

Tutorials

Mondays, 16–18: In this class you will be required to write small computer programs to solve physical problems. This will be done incrementally in small steps, so if you have only little programming experience to date you will have the opportunity to pick this up. (Like all important skills, this will require some effort and lots of experimentation from your side.) But keep in mind that programming is not the main aspect of these tutorials — understanding physics is.

Seminar

Mondays, 14–16: In addition to the tutorials, there will be a seminar in which subjects related to the tutorials will be presented. This will be before the tutorials and the goal will be to get a better understanding of the current exercise set and the related physical and numerical issues.

Lecture

Information about the lecture is given on a separate web page.

Prerequisites

For the tutorials, you will need a computer with:

• a C/C++ or Fortran compiler (e.g., gcc or gfortran or the Intel oneAPI toolkit),
• a text editor (such as emacs or vim),
• a plotting program (for example, gnuplot, IDL, or Python+matplotlib).

You can also do your calculations (remotely, via ssh) on the computers of the LMU Physik CIP Pool.

Grading

Grading will be based on the seminar presentations.

Tutorial and seminar schedule

Seminar topics

1. GR proofs with Galactic center dynamics
2. General dynamics, Lagrangian formalism, equation of motion
3. Solving ODEs
4. Stability of the solar system
5. Gadget-4 symplectic, hierarchical integrator
6. Historical review: how did Kepler find his laws?
7. Minimization algorithms for fitting
8. Kepler, Plummer, Jaffe, Einasto, NFW, Hernquist and Co.
9. Measuring galaxy cluster masses with phase-space methods
10. Stable or Unstable? Orbits in the 3-body problem
11. Ejection of stars from globular clusters
12. Lagrange potential
13. Of horseshoes and tadpoles
14. Timescales in gravitating astrophysical systems
15. The spherical collapse model
16. Chandrasekar approach to dynamical friction
17. Segregation of stars in globular clusters
18. Toomre sequence
19. Shells and streams
20. Cosmological Simulations