Robert Vanderbei provides a Gravity simulator, which illustrates a number of different solutions to the multibody problem.
Most, of course, are unstable - meaning that any deviation from a perfect orbit causes the next orbit to get worse. The program illustrates this, as the numerical analysis used has only finite precision, and the error will accumulate.
But Ducati3 (and my personal favorite Ducati3_10) are stable - the potential pulls small errors back toward the idea orbit. Very hypnotic.
If you are more into blowing stuff up, look at LagrangeN or LagrangeNa.
Vanderbei was kind enough to forward a link to an additional paper, New Orbits for the n-Body problem, that I wasn't able to find when navigating the site.
November 27, 2004 8:40 AM
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*waves hello*
Apropos of absolutely nothing in this post, which I'm afraid is solid Greek to me.
Drop a line if you get a chance. Long time no e-mail.
Comment by: Karin December 2,2004