2011/07/31 by Florent Renaud, Mark Gieles, Christian Boily · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.GA
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2011.19531.x
12 pages, 8 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS
arxiv created 2011/08/30 · arxiv updated 2015/05/29
We present a novel and flexible tensor approach to computing the effect of a time-dependent tidal field acting on a stellar system. The tidal forces are recovered from the tensor by polynomial interpolation in time. The method has been implemented in a direct-summation stellar dynamics integrator (NBODY6) and test-proved through a set of reference calculations: heating, dissolution time and structural evolution of model star clusters are all recovered accurately. The tensor method is applicable to arbitrary configurations, including the important situation where the background potential is a strong function of time. This opens up new perspectives in stellar population studies reaching to the formation epoch of the host galaxy or galaxy cluster, as well as for star-burst events taking place during the merger of large galaxies. A pilot application to a star cluster in the merging galaxies NGC 4038/39 (the Antennae) is presented.