Dynamical Decay of Few-Body Systems

The decay of nonhierarchical few-body systems (N<10) is investigated by direct numerical orbit integrations using the CHAIN regularization scheme (Mikkola & Aarseth, 1993), and applied  to young stellar multiples formed by fragmenting cloud collapse. Many such simulations allow to statistically analyse the endstates. The kinematical and dynamical properties of remnant singles, binaries and stable multiple decay products can help to understand various observable features in star forming regions such as stellar dispersion velocities, binary frequencies, and their wide spread in separations.

Example: Burrau's problem

• Time evolution of the "Pythagorean" (or Burrau's) problem - a test calculation for CHAIN: Three bodies of mass m1=5, m2=4, m3=3 are placed in the corners of a  Pythagorean triangle, with the highest mass positioned at the opposite of the largest distance. View MPG Movie (1.8MB): the length of the proper motion vectors correspond to a distance of 2 time units.

Binary Properties in Dynamically Decaying Few-Body Clusters

Poster contribution to Star Formation 1999, Nagoya, Japan

Dynamical Decay of Young Few-Body Clusters and “Isolated“ T Tauri Stars

"Young Stars Near the Earth", March 2001, NASA/Ames, USA

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Last change 12.3.2001