Abstract
Globular star clusters provide a unique laboratory. In astronomy they present an opportunity to study dense stellar systems that are more accessible than galactic nuclei. In statistical mechanics, concepts of negative heat capacity and resulting gravothermal instabilities challenge the present framework of statistical deceptions of dynamical systems. In computer science, modelling their evolution poses an extreme challenge to the hardware and software capabilities of the next generation of parallel computers, and provides an ideal test case for teraflop machines.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Elson, R., Hut, P. & Inagaki, S. A. Rev. Astr. Astrophys. 25, 565–601 (1987).
Spitzer, L. Dynamical Evolution of Globular Clusters (Princeton University Press, 1987).
The Dynamics of Dense Stellar Systems (ed. Merritt, D.) (Univ. of Cambridge Press, 1988).
Verbunt, F. in Physics of Neutron Stars and Black Holes, (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Tokyo, 1988).
Bettwieser, E. & Sugimoto, D. Mon. Not. R. astr. Soc. 208, 439–509 (1984).
Raveché, H. J., Lawrie, D. H. & Despain, A. M. A National Computing Initiative, Proc. SIAM workshop, Virginia, 1987 (Soc. ind. appl. Math., Philadelphia, 1987).
Goodman, J. Astrophys. J. 313, 576–595 (1987).
McMillan, S. L. W. & Lightman, A. P. Astrophys. J. 283, 801–812 (1984); McMillan, S. L. W. & Lightman, A. P. Astrophys. J. 283, 813–824 (1984).
McMillan, S. L. W. in The Dynamics of Star Clusters (eds Goodman, J. & Hut, P.) 331–333 (Reidel, Dordrecht, 1985).
McMillan, S. L. W. Astrophys. J. 307, 126–138 (1986).
Cohn, H., Hut, P. & Wise, M. Astrophys. J. (submitted).
Aarseth, S. J. Mon. Not. Roy. astr. Soc. 126, 223–255 (1963).
Aarseth, S. J. in Multiple Times Scales (eds Brackbill, J. U. & Cohen, B. I.) 377–418 (Academic, New York, 1985).
Makino, J. & Hut, P. Astrophys. J. Suppl. (in the press).
Ahmad, A. & Cohen, L. J. comput. Phys. 12, 389–402 (1973).
Appel, A. SIAM J. Sci. stat. Comput. 6, 85–103 (1985).
Porter, D. thesis, Univ. California (1985).
Jernigan, J. G. in Dynamics of Star Clusters IAU Symp. 113, (eds Goodman, J. & Hut, P.) 275–284 (Reidel, Dordrecht, 1985).
Barnes, J. & Hut, P. Nature 324, 446–449 (1986).
Greengard, L. & Rokhlin, V. J. comput. Phys. 73, 325–348 (1987).
Zhao, F. Res. Rep. AI-TR-995, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1987).
Hénon, M. in The Gravitational N-body Problem IAU Coll. 10 (ed. Lecar, M.) 406–422 (Reidel, Dordrecht, 1972).
Heggie, D. C. & Mathieu, R. D. in The Use of Supercomputers in Stellar Dynamics (eds Hut, P. & McMillan, S. L. W.) 233 (Springer, New York, 1986).
Applegate, J. H. et al. IEEE Transactions on Computers, c-34, 822–831 (1985).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Hut, P., Makino, J. & McMillan, S. Modelling the evolution of globular star clusters. Nature 336, 31–35 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/336031a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/336031a0
- Springer Nature Limited
This article is cited by
-
A special-purpose computer for gravitational many-body problems
Nature (1990)
-
In search of higher powers
Nature (1990)