REBOUND: An open-source multi-purpose N-body code for collisional dynamics

REBOUND is a new multi-purpose N-body code which is freely available under an open-source license. It was designed for collisional dynamics such as planetary rings but can also solve the classical N-body problem. It is highly modular and can be customized easily to work on a wide variety of different problems in astrophysics and beyond. REBOUND comes with three symplectic integrators: leap-frog, the symplectic epicycle integrator (SEI) and a Wisdom-Holman mapping (WH). It supports open, periodic and shearing-sheet boundary conditions. REBOUND can use a Barnes-Hut tree to calculate both self-gravity and collisions. These modules are fully parallelized with MPI as well as OpenMP. The former makes use of a static domain decomposition and a distributed essential tree. Two new collision detection modules based on a plane-sweep algorithm are also implemented. The performance of the plane-sweep algorithm is superior to a tree code for simulations in which one dimension is much longer than the other two and in simulations which are quasi-two dimensional with less than one million particles. In this work, we discuss the different algorithms implemented in REBOUND, the philosophy behind the code's structure as well as implementation specific details of the different modules. We present results of accuracy and scaling tests which show that the code can run efficiently on both desktop machines and large computing clusters.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, accepted by A&A, source code available at https://github.com/hannorein/reboun

Formation of trapped surfaces for the spherically symmetric Einstein-Vlasov system

We consider the spherically symmetric, asymptotically flat, non-vacuum Einstein equations, using as matter model a collisionless gas as described by the Vlasov equation. We find explicit conditions on the initial data which guarantee the formation of a trapped surface in the evolution which in particular implies that weak cosmic censorship holds for these data. We also analyze the evolution of solutions after a trapped surface has formed and we show that the event horizon is future complete. Furthermore we find that the apparent horizon and the event horizon do not coincide. This behavior is analogous to what is found in certain Vaidya spacetimes. The analysis is carried out in Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates.Comment: 2

Extended Rein-Sehgal model for tau lepton production

The polarization density matrix formalism is employed to include the final lepton mass and spin into the popular model by Rein and Sehgal for single pion neutrinoproduction. We investigate the effect of the $\tau$ lepton mass on the differential cross sections. The lepton polarization evaluated within the extended RS model is compared against that follows from the single resonance production model based upon the Rarita-Schwinger formalism with phenomenological transition form factors.Comment: Contribution to the 3rd International Workshop on Neutrino-Nucleus Interactions in the Few-GeV Region, 17-21 March, Gran Sasso (Italy

Global existence and asymptotic behaviour in the future for the Einstein-Vlasov system with positive cosmological constant

The behaviour of expanding cosmological models with collisionless matter and a positive cosmological constant is analysed. It is shown that under the assumption of plane or hyperbolic symmetry the area radius goes to infinity, the spacetimes are future geodesically complete, and the expansion becomes isotropic and exponential at late times. This proves a form of the cosmic no hair theorem in this class of spacetimes

Long distance contribution to B−→K−K−π+B^- \to K^- K^- \pi^+, - a searching ground mode for new physics

The decay $B^- \to K^- K^- \pi^+$ has been sugested as a test for minimal supersymmetric standard model and for supersymmetric models with R-parity violating couplings, in view of its extreme smallnesss in the standard model. We calculate two long distance contributions to this decay, that associated with $DD$ and $D\pi$ intermediate states and that induced by virtual $D$, $\pi$ mesons. The branching ratio due to these contributions is $6 \times 10^{-12}$, which is somewhat smaller than the standard model short distance result, leaving this decay free for the search of new physics.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, revised versio

Spherically symmetric steady states of galactic dynamics in scalar gravity

The kinetic motion of the stars of a galaxy is considered within the framework of a relativistic scalar theory of gravitation. This model, even though unphysical, may represent a good laboratory where to study in a rigorous, mathematical way those problems, like the influence of the gravitational radiation on the dynamics, which are still beyond our present understanding of the physical model represented by the Einstein--Vlasov system. The present paper is devoted to derive the equations of the model and to prove the existence of spherically symmetric equilibria with finite radius.Comment: 13 pages, mistypos correcte