Tree-Particle-Mesh: an adaptive, efficient, and parallel code for collisionless cosmological simulation

Abstract

An improved implementation of an N-body code for simulating collisionless cosmological dynamics is presented. TPM (Tree-Particle-Mesh) combines the PM method on large scales with a tree code to handle particle-particle interactions at small separations. After the global PM forces are calculated, spatially distinct regions above a given density contrast are located; the tree code calculates the gravitational interactions inside these denser objects at higher spatial and temporal resolution. The new implementation includes individual particle time steps within trees, an improved treatment of tidal forces on trees, new criteria for higher force resolution and choice of time step, and parallel treatment of large trees. TPM is compared to P^3M and a tree code (GADGET) and is found to give equivalent results in significantly less time. The implementation is highly portable (requiring a Fortran compiler and MPI) and efficient on parallel machines. The source code can be found at http://astro.princeton.edu/~bode/TPM/