author : Piet Hut

Books

• The Gravitational Million-Body Problem. 2003, with Douglas C. Heggie

Short works

• Structuring reality: the role of limits. 1996. (In Boundaries and Barriers )
• Complexity and funtionality: A search for the where, the when, and the how. 2000. (In Unifying Themes in Complex Systems )
• The Construction of Autonomous Tools. 2000. (In The Greatest Inventions of the Past 2000 Years )
• A radical re-evaluation of the character of time. 2006. (In What is Your Dangerous Idea? )

Books : reviews

Douglas C. Heggie, Piet Hut.
The Gravitational Million-Body Problem: a multidisciplinary approach to star cluster dynamics.
CUP. 2003

The globular star clusters of the Milky Way contain hundreds of thousands of stars held together by gravitational interactions, and date from the time when the Milky Way was forming. This text describes the theory astronomers need for studying globular star clusters. The gravitational million-body problem is an idealised model for understanding the dynamics of a cluster with a million stars. After introducing the million-body problem from various view-points, the book systematically develops the tools needed for studying the million-body problems in nature, and introduces the most important theoretical models. Including a comprehensive treatment of few-body interactions, and developing an intuitive but quantitative understanding of the three-body problem, the book introduces numerical methods, relevant software, and current problems. Enhanced by exercises for the reader, this book is a comprehensive preparation for cutting edge research in the field of stellar dynamics. Suitable for graduate students and researchers in astrophysics and astronomy, this text also has important applications in the fields of theoretical physics, computational science and mathematics.