Application of Time Reversal Invariance to Numerical Experiments of Many Body Systems: Case of Campbell-Henon Model

Abstract

The accuracy of numerical experiments in many body systems is examined with the aid of the time reversal invariance. As an example the case of self-gravitating, spherically symmetric system – Campbell-Hénon model – is studied. We compare the initial values of radius and velocity of each particle with the final ones obtained at the end of time-reversed process under different parameters. In typical cases the accuracy rapidly diminishes 8-fold compared to the dynamical time. The method is used to select optimum values of parameters for numerical computations.