In this project you will experiment with a professional n-body simulator, frequently used in cosmology.
The Gadget 2 simulator will help you understanding the theory behind the simulation algorithms. (local copy with notes).
Note: From October 2020, there is a new version: GADGET4
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Install a local version of the software with the accomaining libraries. (compile the source code and run it on a single processor)
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Compile the parallel version (the MPI is a good parallel library)
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Experiment with the demo problems, povided with the GADGET code:
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For each problem above evaluate the simulation results, create a section in your report and a brief presentation
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Select a similar new problem, e.g. by reading a research paper from the last 3 years, and reproduce the results at a scale, which fits into the computers you have access to. A good starting point for finding an appropriate article is to search in the google scholar or in any other scientific citation database, and looking into the papers that refers to the above simulator or papers in documentation of the simulator. A possible interesting project: Compare standard dynamics and non-Newtonian gravitation. There is a description of a modified gravity GADGET code.
predictor-corrector in n-body simulations
Introduction to N-body simulation by P. Hut and J. Makino (local copy and code)
Generating initial conditions:
- Starscream: for collisions of galaxies
- 2LPTic: general cosmology simulations