Multistep methods for integrating the solar system

Panayotis A. Skordos

High order multistep methods, run at constant stepsize, are one of the most effective schemes for integrating the Newtonian solar system, for long periods of time. I have studied the stability and error growth of these methods, when applied to harmonic oscillators and two-body systems like the Sun-Jupiter pair. I have found that the truncation error of multistep methods on two-body systems grows in time like t^2, and the roundoff like t^{1.5} and I have a theory that accounts for this. I have also tried to design better multistep integrators than the traditional Stormer and Cowell methods, and have found a few interesting ones. A second result of my search for new methods is that I did not find any predictor that is stable on the Sun-Jupiter system, for stepsizes smaller than 108 steps per cycle, whose order of accuracy is greater than 12. For example, Stormer-13 becomes unstable at 108 steps per cycle. This limitation between stability and accuracy seems to be a general property of multistep methods.

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