Course Term: Hilary
Course Overview:
Review of Hamiltonian mechanics. Orbit integration. Classification of orbits and integrability. Construction of angle-action variables. Hamiltonian perturbation theory. Simple examples of its application to the evolution of planetary and stellar orbits. Methods for constructing equilibrium galaxy models. Applications. Fundamentals of N-body simulation. Dynamical evolution of isolated galaxies. Interactions with companions.
External Lecturer(s):
Prof. John Magorrian