Course Term: Hilary
Course Weight: 1
Course Overview:
16 lectures.
Areas: Astro
Prequel/pre-requisite: Kinetic Theory (MT)
External Lecturer(s):
Prof. John Magorrian
Assessment Type:
Mini-project or no formal assessment; homework completion
Course Synopsis:
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.