U.C. San Diego

PHYSICS 141 Home Page

Computational Physics I (N-Body Simulations)

Winter 2001

Course Information

Professor:

Julius Kuti

Office hours: W 1:30-2:30, or by appointment

Office: 5410 Mayer Hall

Phone: 534-6096

E-mail: jkuti@ucsd.edu

Teaching Assistant:

Mark Lam

Office hours: T 1:30-2:30, or by appointment

Office: 5120 Mayer Hall

Phone: 534-0752

E-mail: mlam@physics.ucsd.edu

Secretary:

Sutara Yu

Office: 5414 Mayer Hall

Phone: 534-7142

E-mail: suyu@ucsd.edu

Announcements

Instructional Accounts and Electronic Doorkey Access

Instructional Computing (Labs, Hours, etc.)

Accounts Office

Handouts and Homework Assignements

Course Outline and Lecture Notes

• Introduction

  • Lecture 1 Computer Modeling (1/8/2001)

• Classical Mechanics and the N-Body Problem

  • Lecture 2 Lagrangian and Hamiltonian Dynamics (1/10/2001)
  • Lecture 3 Gravitational Potential and N-Body Equations (1/17/2001)
  • Lecture 4 Collisionless Dynamics (1/22/2001)
  • Lecture 5 Boltzmann Equation (1/24/2001)

• N-Body Simulations

  • Lecture 6 N-Body Simulation Methods (1/29/2001)
  • Lecture 7 The Individual Time-Step Method and the Aarseth Code (1/31/2001)
  • Lecture 8 Steady-State Distribution Functions and the Jeans Theorem (2/5/2001)
  • Lecture 9 Galaxy Modeling I.(2/7/2001)
  • Lecture 10 Galaxy Modeling II.(2/12/2001)
  • Lecture 11 Galaxy Modeling III.(2/14/2001)
  • Lecture 12 The Treecode I. (2/21/2001)
  • Lecture 13 The Treecode II. (2/26/2001)

• The Final Project: Galaxy Collisions

  • Lecture 14 Mergers of Galaxies (Final Project) (2/28/2001)
  • Lecture 15 Discussion of the Final Project (3/5/2001)
  • Lecture 16 Choice of Units and Scales (3/7/2001)

• Molecular Dynamics

  • Lecture 17 A Molecular Dynamics Primer (3/12/2001)
  • Lecture 18 Introduction to Macromolecular Simulation (3/14/2001)

Laboratory Notes

Manuals