0. Preface
We continue the dialogue in the previous two volumes, where Alice and
Bob developed a gravitational 2-body code, containing a wide choice of
integrators. In the current volume, they modify their code, to grow
it into a true N-body version. They try out various choices of
implementation, and test each version using the recently discovered
solution for the 3-body problem, where all three particles follow each
other in a figure eight. Toward the end of the book, they simulate a
cold collapse of eight particles, first without softening, then with
softening.
0.1. Acknowledgments
Besides thanking our home institutes, the Institute for Advanced Study
in Princeton and the University of Tokyo, we want to convey our
special gratitude to the Yukawa Institute of Theoretical Physics in
Kyoto, where this volume was written, during a visit in May 2004, made
possible by the kind invitations to both of us by Professor Masao
Ninomiya.
We thank Michele Trenti and Jason Underdown for their comments on the
manuscript.
Piet Hut and Jun Makino
Kyoto, July 2004