Name:SOLAR
Description:Simulation of planetary system formation
Abstract:In recent years there has been a large increase in the amount of available data on extra-solar planetary systems. In view of these achievements it is not surprising that a long standing problem of the detailed understanding of planet formation has received a lot of attention lately. One of the ultimate goals of such studies is to assess the likelihood of the formation of Earth-like planets. The exponential increase in computing power during the last two decades has made numerical simulation the most promising tool to achieve this goal. However, if one wants to perform a numerical ab initio simulation of the planetary system formation starting from a protoplanetary nebula, a large number of initial particles needs to be considered. Since the range of planetary masses in the Solar system spans four orders of magnitude, the smallest possible number of initial particles needed to resolve them with reasonable accuracy is at the very least N=108. Despite recent exceptional advances, state of the art simulations of gravitating systems are barely able to deal with this many initial particles. To make such large scale simulations feasible, we have devised an effective model of planetary accretion. <BR/>Using the model it is possible to simulate the formation of planetary systems starting from as many as N=1012 initial particles, and to investigate properties of condensates, including the distribution of their masses and spins (angular momentum), as well as their radial distributions. It is also possible to investigate evolution of these properties during the condensation process, and to uncover sensitivity of key features of such systems on initial conditions.<BR/>
Created:2010-05-01
Last updated:2010-05-01
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