Symplectic integrator for general near-integrable Hamiltonian system

In this paper, following the idea of constructing the mixed symplectic integrator (MSI) for a separable Hamiltonian system, we give a low order mixed symplectic integrator for an inseparable, but nearly integrable, Hamiltonian system, Although the difference schemes of the integrators are implicit, they not only have a small truncation error but, due to near integrability, also a faster convergence rate of iterative solution than ordinary implicit integrators, Moreover, these second order integrators are time-reversible.     

Symplectic integrators with adaptive timestep applied to spinning compact binaries

This paper deals mainly with the application of the mixed leapfrog symplectic integrators with adaptive timestep to a conservative post-Newtonian Hamiltonian formulation with canonical spins for spinning compact binaries. The adaptive timestep depends on the two body separation r and the magnitude of the spins. Various numerical tests including a chaotic high-eccentricity orbit show that the fixed step symplectic integrators lost drastically the good long term behaviour in the test cases with large eccentricity, the adaptive timestep integrator is always superior to the constant step in the integral precision.     

QYMSYM: A GPU-accelerated hybrid symplectic integrator that permits close encounters

We describe a parallel hybrid symplectic integrator for planetary system integration that runs on a graphics processing unit (GPU). The integrator identifies close approaches between particles and switches from symplectic to Hermite algorithms for particles that require higher resolution integrations. The integrator is approximately as accurate as other hybrid symplectic integrators but is GPU accelerated.     

Variational and symplectic integrators for satellite relative orbit propagation including drag

Orbit propagation algorithms for satellite relative motion relying on Runge–Kutta integrators are non-symplectic—a situation that leads to incorrect global behavior and degraded accuracy. Thus, attempts have been made to apply symplectic methods to integrate satellite relative motion. However, so far all these symplectic propagation schemes have not taken into account the effect of atmospheric drag. In this paper, drag-generalized symplectic and variational algorithms for satellite relative orbit propagation are developed in different reference frames, and numerical simulations with and without the effect of atmospheric drag are presented. It is also shown that high-order versions of the newly-developed variational and symplectic propagators are more accurate and are significantly faster than Runge–Kutta-based integrators, even in the presence of atmospheric drag.     

Explicit Symplectic Integrator for Rotating Satellites

An explicit symplectic integrator is constructed for the problem of a rotating planetary satellite on a Keplerian orbit. The spin vector is fixed perpendicularly to the orbital plane. The integrator is constructed according to the Wisdom-Holman approach: the Hamiltonian is separated in two parts so that one of them is multiplied by a small parameter. The parameter depends on the satellite’s shape or the eccentricity of its orbit. The leading part of the Hamiltonian for small eccentricity orbits is similar to the simple pendulum and hence integrable; the perturbation does not depend on angular momentum which implies a trivial ‘kick’ solution. In spite of the necessity to evaluate elliptic function at each step, the explicit symplectic integrator proves to be quite efficient. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

辛方法的校正公式

1996年Wisdom等提出了对辛方法进行校正的概念和实践，现在继续对辛校正进行详尽讨论和数值比较，尤其对哈密顿函数可分解为一个主要部分和多个次要部分的一般情形，用Lie级数推导任意阶的各种辛算法的一次和二次辛校正公式并对一些算法给出具体的辛校正公式。又以日、木、土三体问题为模型进行数值实验，结果表明一次辛校正能提高精度，改善数值稳定性。计算效率也比较高，因而值得推荐使用，辛方法通常用大步长数值积分，这时二次辛校正并没有显著提高结果的精度，却大大增加了计算时间，不应予以推荐。     

Numerical experiments on the efficiency of second-order mixed-variable symplectic integrators for N-body problems

We discuss the efficiency of the so-called mixed-variable symplectic integrators for N-body problems. By performing numerical experiments, we first show that the evolution of the mean error in action-like variables is strongly dependent on the initial configuration of the system. Then we study the effect of changing the stepsize when dealing with problems including close encounters between a particle and a planet. Considering a previous study of the slow encounter between comet P/Oterma and Jupiter, we show that the overall orbital patterns can be reproduced, but this depends on the chosen value of the maximum integration stepsize. Moreover the Jacobi constant in a restricted three-body problem is not conserved anymore when the stepsize is changed frequently: over a 10⁵ year time span, to keep a relative error in this integral of motion of the same order as that given by a Bulirsch-Stoer integrator requires a very small integration stepsize and much more computing time. However, an integration of a sample including 10⁴ particles close to Neptune shows that the distributions of the variation of the elements over one orbital period of the particles obtained by the Bulirsch-Stoer integrator and the symplectic integrator up to a certain integration stepsize are rather similar. Therefore, mixed-variable symplectic integrators are efficient either for N-body problems which do not include close encounters or for statistical investigations on a big sample of particles.     

A symplectic integrator for the symmetry reduced and regularised planar 3-body problem with vanishing angular momentum

We construct an explicit reversible symplectic integrator for the planar 3-body problem with zero angular momentum. We start with a Hamiltonian of the planar 3-body problem that is globally regularised and fully symmetry reduced. This Hamiltonian is a sum of 10 polynomials each of which can be integrated exactly, and hence a symplectic integrator is constructed. The performance of the integrator is examined with three numerical examples: The figure eight, the Pythagorean orbit, and a periodic collision orbit.     

辛积分器中沿迹误差的一种补偿方法

辛积分器严格描述了一摄动Ｈａｍｉｌｔｏｎ系统的流，因而导致天体轨道的沿迹误差随时间呈线性增长趋势。本文利用这一特点，提出了一种对其沿迹误差进行估算的数值方法，从而达到了对数值结果进行沿迹误差补偿的目的，数值结果证实了此方法在较大积分步长和较长积分时间的数值计算中是有效的。     

几类辛方法的数值稳定性研究

主要对一阶隐式Euler辛方法M1、二阶隐式Euler中点辛方法M2、一阶显辛Euler方法M3和二阶leapfrog显辛积分器M4共4种辛方法及一些组合算法进行了通常意义下的线性稳定性分析．针对线性哈密顿系统,理论上找到每个数值方法的稳定区,然后用数值方法检验其正确性．对于哈密顿函数为实对称二次型的情况,为了理论推导便利,特推荐采用相似变换将二次型的矩阵对角化来研究辛方法的线性稳定性．当哈密顿分解为一个主要部分和一个小摄动次要部分且二者皆可积时,无论是线性系统还是非线性系统,这种主次分解与哈密顿具有动势能分解相比,明显扩大了辛方法的稳定步长范围．     

A note on the algorithm of symplectic integrators

For a Hamiltonian that can be separated into N+1(N\geq 2) integrable parts, four algorithms can be built for a symplectic integrator. This research compares these algorithms for the first and second order integrators. We found that they have similar local truncation errors represented by error Hamiltonian but rather different numerical stability. When the computation of the main part of the Hamiltonian, H ₀, is not expensive, we recommend to use S ^* type algorithm, which cuts the calculation of the H ₀ system into several small time steps as Malhotra(1991) did. As to the order of the N+1 parts in one step calculation, we found that from the large to small would get a slower error accumulation. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A mapping method for the gravitational few-body problem with dissipation

Recently a new class of numerical integration methods — mixed variable symplectic integrators — has been introduced for studying long-term evolution in the conservative gravitational few-body problem. These integrators are an order of magnitude faster than conventional ODE integration methods. Here we present a simple modification of this method to include small non-gravitational forces. The new scheme provides a similar advantage of computational speed for a larger class of problems in Solar System dynamics.     

天体轨道长期数值积分的误差估计方法

数值积分方法是进行天体力学研究的重要工具, 尤其对于行星历表的研究工作而言. 由于在使用数值方法计算天体轨道时, 最终误差通常是难以预知的, 所以在面对精度要求较高或者积分时间较长的工作时具体积分方案的设计---尤其是当使用定步长方法时的步长选择---需要十分谨慎, 因为这将意味着是否能在时间成本可以被接受的范围内使解的精度达到要求. 因此, 在使用数值方法解决实际问题时如何快速寻找效率与精度之间的最佳平衡点是每一个数值积分方法的设计者与使用者都会面临的难题. 为解决这一问题, 在定步长条件下对数值积分方法的舍入误差概率分布函数以及截断误差积累量对步长的依赖关系和随时间的增长关系进行了深入研究. 基于所得结论, 提出了一种仅需较少的数值实验资料即可对选择任意时间步长积分至任意积分时刻时的舍入误差概率分布函数与截断误差积累量进行准确估计的方法, 并使用Adams-Cowell方法对该误差估计方法在圆周期轨道条件下进行了验证. 该误差估计方法在未来有望用于不同数值算法的性能对比研究, 同时也可以对数值积分方法求解实际轨道问题时的决策工作带来重要帮助.     

Lie group variational integrators for the full body problem in orbital mechanics

Equations of motion, referred to as full body models, are developed to describe the dynamics of rigid bodies acting under their mutual gravitational potential. Continuous equations of motion and discrete equations of motion are derived using Hamilton’s principle. These equations are expressed in an inertial frame and in relative coordinates. The discrete equations of motion, referred to as a Lie group variational integrator, provide a geometrically exact and numerically efficient computational method for simulating full body dynamics in orbital mechanics; they are symplectic and momentum preserving, and they exhibit good energy behavior for exponentially long time periods. They are also efficient in only requiring a single evaluation of the gravity forces and moments per time step. The Lie group variational integrator also preserves the group structure without the use of local charts, reprojection, or constraints. Computational results are given for the dynamics of two rigid dumbbell bodies acting under their mutual gravity; these computational results demonstrate the superiority of the Lie group variational integrator compared with integrators that are not symplectic or do not preserve the Lie group structure.     

A pseudo third order symplectic integrator

The symplectic integrator has been regarded as one of the optimal tools for research on qualitative secular evolution of Hamiltonian systems in solar system dynamics. An integrable and separate Hamiltonian system H = H₀ + Σ_i=1^N ε_iH_i (ε_i ≪ 1) forms a pseudo third order symplectic integrator, whose accuracy is approximately equal to that of the first order corrector of the Wisdom-Holman second order symplectic integrator or that of the Forest-Ruth fourth order symplectic integrator. In addition, the symplectic algorithm with force gradients is also suited to the treatment of the Hamiltonian system H = H₀(q,p) + εH₁(q), with accuracy better than that of the original symplectic integrator but not superior to that of the corresponding pseudo higher order symplectic integrator.     

The Long-term Error Estimation Method for the Numerical Integrations of Celestial Orbits

Numerical methods have become a very important type of tool for celestial mechanics, especially in the study of planetary ephemerides. The errors generated during the computation are hard to know beforehand when applying a certain numerical integrator to solve a certain orbit. In that case, it is not easy to design a certain integrator for a certain celestial case when the requirement of accuracy were extremely high or the time-span of the integration were extremely large. Especially when a fixed-step method is applied, the caution and effort it takes would always be tremendous in finding a suitable time-step, because it is about whether the accuracy and time-cost of the final result are acceptable. Thus, finding the best balance between efficiency and accuracy with the least time cost appeared to be a major obstruction in the face of both numerical integrator designers and their users. To solve this problem, we investigate the variation pattern of truncation error and the pattern of rounding error distributions with time-step and time-span of the integration. According to those patterns, we promote an error estimation method that could predict the distribution of rounding errors and the total truncation errors with any time-step at any time-spot with little experimental cost, and test it with the Adams-Cowell method in the calculation of circular periodic orbits. This error estimation method is expected to be applied to the comparison of the performance of different numerical integrators, and also it can be of great help for finding the best solution to certain cases of complex celestial orbits calculations.     

Comparing maps to symplectic integrators in a galactic type Hamiltonian

We obtain thex - p _xPoincare phase plane for a two dimensional, resonant, galactic type Hamiltonian using conventional numerical integration, a second order symplectic integrator and a map based on the averaged Hamiltonian. It is found that all three methods give good results, for small values of the perturbation parameter, while the symplectic integrator does a better job than the mapping, for large perturbations. The dynamical spectra are used to distinguish between regular and chaotic motion.     

On the Asynchronous Rotation of Accretors in Interacting Binaries

We show that the gaining component in interacting binaries can rotate faster than its orbital revolution as a consequence of the accretion process. We derive an approximative analytical formula for the Roche lobe radius of asynchronously rotating accretors. We present the case of the semi-detached interacting binary TX UMa, for which we measured directly asynchronous rotation of its accretor. We suggest a method to detect indirectly a fast spinning of accretors in symbiotic binaries based on the the X-ray luminosity of the boundary layer. We demonstrate this possibility for the case of EG And.     

Existence of formal integrals of symplectic integrators

A recurrent method of solving the formal integrals of symplectic integrators is given. The special examples show that there are no long-term variations in all integrals of the Hamiltonian system in addition to the energy one when symplectic integrators are used in the numerical studies of the system. As an application of the formal integrals, the relation between them and the linear stability of symplectic integrators is discussed.