Integration Algorithms

• Equations of motion in cartesian coordinates

• Desirable features of an integrator

  • minimal need to compute forces (a very expensive calculation)
  • good stability for large time steps
  • good accuracy
  • conserves energy and momentum
  • time-reversible
  • area-preserving (symplectic)

pairwise additive forces

2-dimensional space (for example)

More on these later

F

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