Galactic and planetary dynamics

Course outline

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.

Reading

• Galactic dynamics, Binney & Tremaine

• Modern celestial mechanics: aspects of solar system dynamics, Morbidelli

Lectures

HT22 Weeks 1-8. Tuesdays 2-4pm, Fisher Room, DWB.

The lecture notes are in the process of being reordered. The homework problems are embedded in them.

Problems classes

Problems classes will be on Thursday of weeks 5 and 8 (17 February, 8 March). Deadline for submission is 5pm on the Tuesday before.

• Homework 1 (due Tuesday 15th Feb, 5pm): Qs 1-3 of chapter 2, Qs 3,4 of chapter 3 and Qs 1-3 of chapter 4.

• Homework 2 (due Tuesday 8th March, 5pm): TBD

Last year

Here is a record of any online derivations made during lectures (Oxford SSO needed).