2008/08/31 by S. A. Rodionov, E. Athanassoula, N. Ya. Sotnikova +1 · 77 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Computational astrophysics #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Iterative method #Kinematics #Phase (matter) #Stellar dynamics #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Thermodynamic equilibrium #Variety (cybernetics) #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2008.14110.x
published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 392(2), 904-916 (Oxford University Press) · 14 pages, 13 figures, Accepted for publication in MNRAS
arxiv created 2008/10/22 · openalex publication_date 2008/12/11 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We present a new method for constructing equilibrium phase models for stellar systems, which we call the iterative method. It relies on constrained, or guided evolution, so that the equilibrium solution has a number of desired parameters and/or constraints. This method is very powerful, to a large extent due to its simplicity. It can be used for mass distributions with an arbitrary geometry and a large variety of kinematical constraints. We present several examples illustrating it. Applications of this method include the creation of initial conditions for N-body simulations and the modelling of galaxies from their photometric and kinematic observations.