16 lectures.
Areas: Astro
Prequel/pre-requisite: Kinetic Theory (MT)
Please submit your homework here via the 'assignments' tab.
Visiting and Short Option Students Only: Please e-mail your work to your TA/Tutor by the required deadline, copying in mmathphys@maths.ox.ac.uk
Prof. John Magorrian
Mini-project or no formal assessment; homework completion
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.