Phase space simulation of collisionless stellar systems on the massively parallel processor

Abstract

A numerical technique for solving the collisionless Boltzmann equation describing the time evolution of a self gravitating fluid in phase space was implemented on the Massively Parallel Processor (MPP). The code performs calculations for a two dimensional phase space grid (with one space and one velocity dimension). Some results from calculations are presented. The execution speed of the code is comparable to the speed of a single processor of a Cray-XMP. Advantages and disadvantages of the MPP architecture for this type of problem are discussed. The nearest neighbor connectivity of the MPP array does not pose a significant obstacle. Future MPP-like machines should have much more local memory and easier access to staging memory and disks in order to be effective for this type of problem.