arXiv subjects

Rainer Spurzem

Publications and source records attributed to Rainer Spurzem.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2017

The dynamical origin of multiple populations in intermediate-age clusters in the Magellanic Clouds

Numerical simulations were carried out to study the origin of multiple stellar populations in the intermediate-age clusters NGC 411 and NGC 1806 in the Magellanic Clouds. We performed NBODY6++ simulations based on two different formation scenarios, an ad hoc formation model where second-generation (SG) stars are formed inside a cluster of first-generation (FG) stars using the gas accumulated from the external intergalactic medium and a minor merger model of unequal mass ($M_{SG}$/$M_{FG}$ ~5-10%) clusters with an age difference of a few hundred million years. We compared our results such as the radial profile of the SG-to-FG number ratio with observations on the assumption that the SG stars in the observations are composed of cluster members, and confirmed that both the ad hoc formation and merger scenarios reproduce the observed radial trend of the SG-to-FG number ratio which shows less centrally concentrated SG than FG stars. It is difficult to constrain the formation scenario for the multiple populations by only using the spatial distribution of the SG stars. SG stars originating from the merger scenario show a significant velocity anisotropy and rotational features compared to those from the ad hoc formation scenario. Thus, observations aimed at kinematic properties like velocity anisotropy or rotational velocities for SG stars should be obtained to better understand the formation of the multiple populations in these clusters. This is, however, beyond current instrumentation capabilities.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2017

Stability of Multiplanetary Systems in Star Clusters

Most stars form in star clusters and stellar associated. To understand the roles of star cluster environments in shaping the dynamical evolution of planetary systems, we carry out direct $N$-body simulations of four planetary systems models in three different star cluster environments with respectively N=2k, 8k and 32k stars. In each cluster, an ensemble of initially identical planetary systems are assigned to solar-type stars with $\sim 1 M_{\odot}$ and evolved for 50~Myr. We found that following the depletion of protoplanetary disks, external perturbations and planet-planet interactions are two driving mechanisms responsible for the destabilization of planetary systems. The planet survival rate varies from $\sim 95\%$ in the N=2k cluster to $\sim 60\%$ in the N=32k cluster, which suggests that most planetary systems can indeed survive in low-mass clusters, except in the central regions. We also find that planet ejections through stellar encounters are cumulative processes, as only $\sim 3\%$ of encounters are strong enough to excite the eccentricity by $Δe \geq 0.5$. Short-period planets can be perturbed through orbit crossings with long-period planets. When taking into account planet-planet interactions, the planet ejection rate nearly doubles, and therefore multiplicity contributes to the vulnerability of planetary systems. In each ensemble, $\sim 0.2\%$ of planetary orbits become retrograde due to random directions of stellar encounters. Our results predict that young low-mass star clusters are promising sites for next-generation planet surveys, yet low planet detection rates are expected in dense globular clusters such as 47 Tuc. Nevertheless, planets in denser stellar environments are likely to have shorter orbital periods, which enhances their detectability.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2016

Boosted Tidal Disruption by Massive Black Hole Binaries During Galaxy Mergers FROM The View of N-Body Simulation

Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) are productions of the hierarchical galaxy formation model. There are many close connections between central SMBH and its host galaxy because the former plays very important roles on the formation and evolution of a galaxy. For this reason, the evolution of SMBHBs in merging galaxies is an essential problem. Since there are many discussions about SMBHB evolution in gas rich environment, we focus on the quiescent galaxy, using tidal disruption as a diagnostic tool. Our study is based on a series of numerical large particle number direct N-body simulations for dry major mergers. According to the simulation results, the evolution can be divided into three phases. In phase I, the tidal disruption rate for two well separated SMBHs in merging system has similar level to single SMBH in isolate galaxy. After two SMBHs getting close enough to form a bound binary in phase II, the disruption rate can be enhanced for ~ 2 order of magnitudes within a short time. This "boosted" disruption stage finishes after the SMBHB evolving to compact binary system in phase III, corresponding to a drop back of disruption rate to a level of a few times higher than that in Phase I. How to correctly extrapolate our N-body simulation results to reality, and implications of our results to observations, are discussed too.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

Planetary systems in star clusters

Thousands of confirmed and candidate exoplanets have been identified in recent years. Consequently, theoretical research on the formation and dynamical evolution of planetary systems has seen a boost, and the processes of planet-planet scattering, secular evolution, and interaction between planets and gas/debris disks have been well-studied. Almost all of this work has focused on the formation and evolution of isolated planetary systems, and neglect the effect of external influences, such as the gravitational interaction with neighbouring stars. Most stars, however, form in clustered environments that either quickly disperse, or evolve into open clusters. Under these conditions, young planetary systems experience frequent close encounters with other stars, at least during the first 1-10 Myr, which affects planets orbiting at any period range, as well as their debris structures.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2016

Star-disc interaction in galactic nuclei: orbits and rates of accreted stars

We examine the effect of an accretion disc on the orbits of stars in the central star cluster surrounding a central massive black hole by performing a suite of 39 high-accuracy direct N-body simulations using state-of-the art software and accelerator hardware, with particle numbers up to 128k. The primary focus is on the accretion rate of stars by the black hole (equivalent to their tidal disruption rate for black holes in the small to medium mass range) and the eccentricity distribution of these stars. Our simulations vary not only the particle number, but disc model (two models examined), spatial resolution at the centre (characterised by the numerical accretion radius) and softening length. The large parameter range and physically realistic modelling allow us for the first time to confidently extrapolate these results to real galactic centres. While in a real galactic centre both particle number and accretion radius differ by a few orders of magnitude from our models, which are constrained by numerical capability, we find that the stellar accretion rate converges for models with N > 32k. The eccentricity distribution of accreted stars, however, does not converge. We find that there are two competing effects at work when improving the resolution: larger particle number leads to a smaller fraction of stars accreted on nearly-circular orbits, while higher spatial resolution increases this fraction. We scale our simulations to some nearby galaxies and find that the expected boost in stellar accretion (or tidal disruption, which could be observed as X-ray flares) in the presence of a gas disc is about a factor of 10. Even with this boost, the accretion of mass from stars is still a factor of ~ 100 slower than the accretion of gas from the disc. Thus, it seems accretion of stars is not a major contributor to black hole mass growth.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2016

The DRAGON simulations: globular cluster evolution with a million stars

Introducing the DRAGON simulation project, we present direct $N$-body simulations of four massive globular clusters (GCs) with $10^6$ stars and 5$\%$ primordial binaries at a high level of accuracy and realism. The GC evolution is computed with NBODY6++GPU and follows the dynamical and stellar evolution of individual stars and binaries, kicks of neutron stars and black holes, and the effect of a tidal field. We investigate the evolution of the luminous (stellar) and dark (faint stars and stellar remnants) GC components and create mock observations of the simulations (i.e. photometry, color-magnitude diagrams, surface brightness and velocity dispersion profiles). By connecting internal processes to observable features we highlight the formation of a long-lived 'dark' nuclear subsystem made of black holes (BHs), which results in a two-component structure. The inner core is dominated by the BH subsystem and experiences a core collapse phase within the first Gyr. It can be detected in the stellar (luminous) line-of-sight velocity dispersion profiles. The outer extended core - commonly observed in the (luminous) surface brightness profiles - shows no collapse features and is continuously expanding. We demonstrate how a King (1966) model fit to observed clusters might help identify the presence of post core-collapse BH subsystems. For global observables like core and half-mass radii the direct simulations agree well with Monte-Carlo models. Variations in the initial mass function can result in significantly different GC properties (e.g. density distributions) driven by varying amounts of early mass loss and the number of forming BHs.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2016

Million-Body Star Cluster Simulations: Comparisons between Monte Carlo and Direct $N$-body

We present the first detailed comparison between million-body globular cluster simulations computed with a Hénon-type Monte Carlo code, CMC, and a direct $N$-body code, NBODY6++GPU. Both simulations start from an identical cluster model with $10^6$ particles, and include all of the relevant physics needed to treat the system in a highly realistic way. With the two codes "frozen" (no fine-tuning of any free parameters or internal algorithms of the codes) we find excellent agreement in the overall evolution of the two models. Furthermore, we find that in both models, large numbers of stellar-mass black holes (> 1000) are retained for 12 Gyr. Thus, the very accurate direct $N$-body approach confirms recent predictions that black holes can be retained in present-day, old globular clusters. We find only minor disagreements between the two models and attribute these to the small-$N$ dynamics driving the evolution of the cluster core for which the Monte Carlo assumptions are less ideal. Based on the overwhelming general agreement between the two models computed using these vastly different techniques, we conclude that our Monte Carlo approach, which is more approximate, but dramatically faster compared to the direct $N$-body, is capable of producing a very accurate description of the long-term evolution of massive globular clusters even when the clusters contain large populations of stellar-mass black holes.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2015

GalevNB: a conversion from N-BODY simulations to observations

We present $GalevNB$ (Galev for $N$-body simulations), an utility that converts fundamental stellar properties of $N$-body simulations into observational properties using the $GALEV$ (GAlaxy EVolutionary synthesis models) package, and thus allowing direct comparisons between observations and $N$-body simulations. It works by converting fundamental stellar properties, such as stellar mass, temperature, luminosity and metallicity into observational magnitudes for a variety of filters of mainstream instruments/telescopes, such as HST, ESO, SDSS, 2MASS, etc.), and into spectra that spans from far-UV (90 $\rm Å$) to near-IR (160 $\rm μ$m). As an application, we use $GalevNB$ to investigate the secular evolution of spectral energy distribution (SED) and color-magnitude diagram (CMD) of a simulated star cluster over a few hundred million years. With the results given by $GalevNB$ we discover an UV-excess in the SED of the cluster over the whole simulation time. We also identify four candidates that contribute to the FUV peak, core helium burning stars, thermal pulsing asymptotic giant branch (TPAGB) stars, white dwarfs and naked helium stars.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Supermassive Black Holes in Galactic Nuclei with Tidal Disruption of Stars: Paper II - Axisymmetric Nuclei

Tidal Disruption of stars by supermassive central black holes from dense rotating star clusters is modelled by high-accuracy direct N-body simulation. As in a previous paper on spherical star clusters we study the time evolution of the stellar tidal disruption rate and the origin of tidally disrupted stars, now according to several classes of orbits which only occur in axisymmetric systems (short axis tube and saucer). Compared with that in spherical systems, we found a higher TD rate in axisymmetric systems. The enhancement can be explained by an enlarged loss-cone in phase space which is raised from the fact that total angular momentum $\bf J$ is not conserved. As in the case of spherical systems, the distribution of the last apocenter distance of tidally accreted stars peaks at the classical critical radius. However, the angular distribution of the origin of the accreted stars reveals interesting features. Inside the influence radius of the supermassive black hole the angular distribution of disrupted stars has a conspicuous bimodal structure with a local minimum near the equatorial plane. Outside the influence radius this dependence is weak. We show that the bimodal structure of orbital parameters can be explained by the presence of two families of regular orbits, namely short axis tube and saucer orbits. Also the consequences of our results for the loss cone in axisymmetric galactic nuclei are presented.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Performance analysis of parallel gravitational $N$-body codes on large GPU cluster

We compare the performance of two very different parallel gravitational $N$-body codes for astrophysical simulations on large GPU clusters, both pioneer in their own fields as well as in certain mutual scales - NBODY6++ and Bonsai. We carry out the benchmark of the two codes by analyzing their performance, accuracy and efficiency through the modeling of structure decomposition and timing measurements. We find that both codes are heavily optimized to leverage the computational potential of GPUs as their performance has approached half of the maximum single precision performance of the underlying GPU cards. With such performance we predict that a speed-up of $200-300$ can be achieved when up to 1k processors and GPUs are employed simultaneously. We discuss the quantitative information about comparisons of two codes, finding that in the same cases Bonsai adopts larger time steps as well as relative energy errors than NBODY6++, typically ranging from $10-50$ times larger, depending on the chosen parameters of the codes. While the two codes are built for different astrophysical applications, in specified conditions they may overlap in performance at certain physical scale, and thus allowing the user to choose from either one with finetuned parameters accordingly.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2015

Block Time Step Storage Scheme for Astrophysical N-body Simulations

Astrophysical research in recent decades has made significant progress thanks to the availability of various $N$-body simulation techniques. With the rapid development of high-performance computing technologies, modern simulations have been able to take the computing power of massively parallel clusters with more than $10^5$ GPU cores. While unprecedented accuracy and dynamical scales have been achieved, the enormous amount of data being generated continuously poses great challenges for the subsequent procedures of data analysis and archiving. As an urgent response to these challenges, in this paper we propose an adaptive storage scheme for simulation data, inspired by the block time step integration scheme found in a number of direct $N$-body integrators available nowadays. The proposed scheme, namely the block time step storage scheme, works by minimizing the data redundancy with assignments of data with individual output frequencies as required by the researcher. As demonstrated by benchmarks, the proposed scheme is applicable to a wide variety of simulations. Despite the main focus of developing a solution for direct $N$-body simulation data, the methodology is transferable for grid-based or tree-based simulations where hierarchical time stepping is used.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2015

NBODY6++GPU: Ready for the gravitational million-body problem

Accurate direct $N$-body simulations help to obtain detailed information about the dynamical evolution of star clusters. They also enable comparisons with analytical models and Fokker-Planck or Monte-Carlo methods. NBODY6 is a well-known direct $N$-body code for star clusters, and NBODY6++ is the extended version designed for large particle number simulations by supercomputers. We present NBODY6++GPU, an optimized version of NBODY6++ with hybrid parallelization methods (MPI, GPU, OpenMP, and AVX/SSE) to accelerate large direct $N$-body simulations, and in particular to solve the million-body problem. We discuss the new features of the NBODY6++GPU code, benchmarks, as well as the first results from a simulation of a realistic globular cluster initially containing a million particles. For million-body simulations, NBODY6++GPU is $400-2000$ times faster than NBODY6 with 320 CPU cores and 32 NVIDIA K20X GPUs. With this computing cluster specification, the simulations of million-body globular clusters including $5\%$ primordial binaries require about an hour per half-mass crossing time.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2015

GalevNB: Galev for N-Body simulations

We report on GalevNB (Galev for N-Body simulations), an integrated software solution that provides N-body users direct access to the software package GALEV (GALaxy EVolutionary synthesis models). GalevNB is developed for the purpose of a direct comparison between N-body simulations and observations. It converts the fundamental stellar properties of N-body simulations, i.e., stellar mass, temperature, stellar luminosity and metallicity, into observational magnitudes for a variety of filters of widely used instruments/telescopes (HST, ESO, SDSS, 2MASS), and into spectra that span from far-UV (90 $\rm Å$) to near-IR (160 $\rm μ$m).

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

On the occurrence of galaxy harassment

Tidal interactions of galaxies in galaxy clusters have been proposed as one potential explanation of the morphology-density relation at low masses. The efficiency of tidal transformation is expected to depend strongly on the orbit of a galaxy within the cluster halo. The orbit determines both the strength of the cluster's global tidal field and the probability of encounters with other cluster members. Additionally, we investigate the effect of an inclination between the disk of the infalling galaxy and its orbital plane. We also compare our results to observational data. We find that galaxies that entered a cluster from the outskirts are unlikely to be significantly transformed. Closer to the cluster centre, tidal interactions are a more efficient mechanism for producing harassed galaxies. But the inclination of the disk can reduce the mass loss significantly, yet it amplifies the thickening.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2015

Planetary Systems in Star Clusters

In the solar neighborhood, where the typical relaxation timescale is larger than the cosmic age, at least 10\% to 15\% of Sun-like stars have planetary systems with Jupiter-mass planets. In contrast, dense star clusters, charactered by frequent close encounters, have been found to host very few planets. We carry out numerical simulations with different initial conditions to investigate the dynamical stability of planetary systems in star cluster environments.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2014

Descope of the ALIA mission

The present work reports on a feasibility study commissioned by the Chinese Academy of Sciences of China to explore various possible mission options to detect gravitational waves in space alternative to that of the eLISA/LISA mission concept. Based on the relative merits assigned to science and technological viability, a few representative mission options descoped from the ALIA mission are considered. A semi-analytic Monte Carlo simulation is carried out to understand the cosmic black hole merger histories starting from intermediate mass black holes at high redshift as well as the possible scientific merits of the mission options considered in probing the light seed black holes and their coevolution with galaxies in early Universe. The study indicates that, by choosing the armlength of the interferometer to be three million kilometers and shifting the sensitivity floor to around one-hundredth Hz, together with a very moderate improvement on the position noise budget, there are certain mission options capable of exploring light seed, intermediate mass black hole binaries at high redshift that are not readily accessible to eLISA/LISA, and yet the technological requirements seem to within reach in the next few decades for China.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2014

SMBH in Galactic Nuclei with Tidal Disruption of Stars

Tidal Disruption of stars by super massive central black holes from dense star clusters is modeled by high-accuracy direct $N$-body simulation. The time evolution of the stellar tidal disruption rate, the effect of tidal disruption on the stellar density profile and for the first time the detailed origin of tidally disrupted stars are carefully examined and compared with classic papers in the field. Up to 128k particles are used in simulation to model the star cluster around the super massive black hole, we use the particle number and the tidal radius of black hole as free parameters for a scaling analysis. The transition from full to empty loss-cone is analyzed in our data, the tidal disruption rate scales with the particle number $N$ in the expected way for both cases. For the first time in numerical simulations (under certain conditions) we can support the concept of a critical radius of Frank & Rees (1976), which claims that most stars are tidally accreted on highly eccentric orbits originating from regions far outside the tidal radius. Due to the consumption of stars moving on radial orbits, a velocity anisotropy is founded inside the cluster. Finally we make an estimation for the real galactic center based on our simulation results and the scaling analysis.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

Expansion Techniques for Collisionless Stellar Dynamical Simulations

We present GPU implementations of two fast force calculation methods, based on series expansions of the Poisson equation. One is the Self-Consistent Field (SCF) method, which is a Fourier-like expansion of the density field in some basis set; the other is the Multipole Expansion (MEX) method, which is a Taylor-like expansion of the Green's function. MEX, which has been advocated in the past, has not gained as much popularity as SCF. Both are particle-field method and optimized for collisionless galactic dynamics, but while SCF is a "pure" expansion, MEX is an expansion in just the angular part; it is thus capable of capturing radial structure easily, where SCF needs a large number of radial terms. We show that despite the expansion bias, these methods are more accurate than direct techniques for the same number of particles. The performance of our GPU code, which we call ETICS, is profiled and compared to a CPU implementation. On the tested GPU hardware, a full force calculation for one million particles took ~ 0.1 seconds (depending on expansion cutoff), making simulations with as many as $10^8$ particles fast on a comparatively small number of nodes.

astro-ph.IM↗