Stellar Evolution and Tidal Dissipation in REBOUNDx

Abstract

To study the post-main sequence evolution of the Solar system and exoplanetary systems more accurately and efficiently, we introduce two new features to REBOUNDx, an extended library for the N-body integrator REBOUND. The first is a convenient parameter interpolator for coupling different physics and integrators using numerical splitting schemes. The second implements a constant time lag model for tides without evolving spins. We demonstrate various uses of these features using stellar evolution data from MESA (Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics) as an example. The results of our tests agree with several studies in the literature on post-main sequence orbital evolution, and our convergence and performance studies respectively demonstrate our implementations' accuracy and efficiency. These additional effects are publicly available as of REBOUNDx's latest release.