2002/07/31 by Henry E. Kandrup, Ioannis V. Sideris · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #CHAOS (operating system) #Chaotic #Exponent #Lyapunov exponent #Orbit (dynamics) #Periodic orbits #Quantum chaos and dynamical systems #Spacecraft Dynamics and Control #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Tracking (education) #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/345948
published as Astrophys.J. 585 (2003) 244-249 · 9 pages plus 7 figures, expanded version to appear in Astrophysical Journal
arxiv created 2002/11/05 · openalex publication_date 2003/03/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Integrations in fixed N -body realizations of smooth density distributions corresponding to a chaotic galactic potential can be used to derive reliable estimates of the largest (finite-time) Lyapunov exponent χ S associated with an orbit in the smooth potential generated from the same initial condition, even though the N -body orbit is typically characterized by an N -body exponent χ N ≫ χ S . This can be accomplished by either comparing initially nearby orbits in a single N -body system or tracking orbits with the same initial condition evolved in two different N -body realizations of the same smooth density.