On the reliability of N-body simulations
The general consensus in the N-body community is that statistical results of an ensemble of collisional N-body simulations are accurate, even though individual simulations are not. A way to test this hypothesis is to make a direct comparison of an ensemble of solutions obtained by conventional methods with an ensemble of true solutions. In order to make this possible, we wrote an N-body code called Brutus, that uses arbitrary-precision arithmetic. In combination with the Bulirsch-Stoer method, Brutus is able to obtain converged solutions, which are true up to a specified number of digits.
methods: numerical methods: n-body simulations stars: dynamics binaries: formation