Pseudo–High-Order Symplectic Integrators

Abstract

Symplectic N-body integrators are widely used to study problems in celestial mechanics. The most popular algorithms are of 2nd and 4th order, requiring 2 and 6 substeps per timestep, respectively. The number of substeps increases rapidly with order in timestep, rendering higher-order methods impractical. However, symplectic integrators are often applied to systems in which perturbations between bodies are a small factor of the force due to a dominant central mass. In this case, it is possible to create optimized symplectic algorithms that require fewer substeps per timestep. This is achieved by only considering error terms of order epsilon, and neglecting those of order epsilon^2, epsilon^3 etc. Here we devise symplectic algorithms with 4 and 6 substeps per step which effectively behave as 4th and 6th-order integrators when epsilon is small. These algorithms are more efficient than the usual 2nd and 4th-order methods when applied to planetary systems.