Made-to-measure N-body systems

Abstract

We describe an algorithm for constructing N-body realisations of equilibrium stellar systems. The algorithm complements existing orbit-based modelling techniques using linear programming or other optimization algorithms. The equilibria are constructed by integrating an N-body system while slowly adjusting the masses of the particles until the time-averaged density field and other observables converge to a prescribed value. The procedure can be arranged to maximise a linear combination of the entropy of the system and the $\chi^2$ statistic for the observables. The equilibria so produced may be useful as initial conditions for N-body simulations or for modelling observations of individual galaxies.