Abstract: |
Astrophysicists rely on solution for the N-body problem for a myriad of dynamics problems, from those in dark matter dynamics to those in planetary dynamics. Over 50 years ago, Miller found that errors in our simulations of the N-body problem grow exponentially in time. So why should one trust any such simulation over long times? In this talk, I explore a two-planet planetary system. The allowed motion over long times can be estimated by recent results from Hadden & Lithwich (2018). I find conventional integration methods are as accurate as fancier symplectic methods. In fact, a higher order symplectic method gave wrong statistics.
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