In the Fokker-Planck approach, the mass spectrum of stars is binned, with a separate for each bin.
Increasing the resolution of the mass spectrum requires increasing the number of distribution functions and
thus increasing the complexity of the problem. Consequently, Fokker-Planck codes can handle at most a few
dozen different
. The inclusion of additional physical variables such as binaries adds sufficient further
complexity that the codes are taxed beyond their capacity. Methods for numerically solving the
Fokker-Planck equation use either an orbit-averaged form of Equation (29
) [34], or a Monte Carlo
approach [71
, 79
, 80, 127
, 65].
The two time scales involved in the evolution of are
(which governs changes in position)
and
(which governs changes in energy). The orbit-averaged form of Equation (29
) derives from the
realization that changes in position are essentially periodic with orbital period
. Thus,
one can average over the rapid changes in position and retain the slow changes in the phase space
coordinates that occur over relaxation times. Given suitable assumptions on the symmetry of the potential
and the velocity distribution, when one does this, the Fokker-Planck equation is reduced to an
equation involving the energy and the magnitude of the angular momentum. The orbit-averaged
solutions of the Fokker-Planck equation cannot easily handle the effect of binaries and the binary
interactions that occur during the evolution of a globular cluster [75]. These effects are usually
inserted by hand using statistical methods. The advantages of the orbit-averaged approach are
that one can generalize it to handle anisotropy in velocity, thus allowing study of the effects of
the galactic gravitational field and tidal stripping. One can also include the rotation of the
cluster [130].
The more recent Monte Carlo simulations [79, 127, 71] do not actually deal with the distribution
functions, but rather treat the cluster as a collection of particles that represent a spherical shell of similar
stars. Based on the pioneering work of Hénon [105, 104], they are able to represent an arbitrary number
of species and can follow binary evolution and other effects. The underlying treatment of relaxation
throughout the simulation is done in the Fokker-Planck approximation, but the interactions and
evolution of the stars are handled on a particle by particle basis. Consequently, these codes are
significantly more robust in their ability to handle realistic populations of stars. A nearly continuous
mass spectrum can be used, and stellar evolution and binarity can be included with relative
ease. In addition, both stellar collisions and large-angle scatterings can also be tracked. The
primary disadvantages of these Monte Carlo codes are that they require spherical symmetry and
that they suffer from statistical noise despite the large number of particles being tracked. For
an excellent overview of the implementations and history of the Monte Carlo methods based
on Hénon’s work, see Marc Freitag’s link on the Working Group 3 page at the MODEST
website [151].
Another approach to solving the Fokker-Planck equation makes use of the analogy between a globular
cluster and a self-gravitating gaseous sphere [145, 82]. The most effective use of the gaseous models are in a
hybrid code that treats the single stars in a gaseous model while treating the relaxation of binary, three-,
and four-body interactions using a Monte Carlo code [83, 84
]. This approach shows promise for its
flexibility in adding new physics.
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