ASMODEAN

ASMODEAN (Analytic Scattering Modelling and Orbital Dynamics with External Acceleration and N-body interactions) extends the potential-reconstruction functionality of LANFEAR, allowing for up to 10 particles to be integrated simultaneously in an external potential. This approach is particularly useful for studying the hardening of supermassive black hole binaries in a galaxy merger due to 3-body stellar interactions. The code wraps C++ routines with an easy-to-use python interface.

In ASMODEAN scattering experiments, there are different outcomes of the integration:

• Bodies closer than a collision distance merge (momentum-conserving; contact located by bisection).
• Ejected bodies (escaped beyond an ejection radius) are removed and no longer integrated.
• The run stops at a maximum number of periods, when every body has merged into one, or when at most one body is left after ejections.

Evolution of binary orbital parameters can also be studied.

ASMODEAN can be downloaded from the github page. This is an ongoing project, so please reach out if you have specific feature requests.