A non-perturbative method for gravitational potential calculations within heterogeneous and aspherical planets

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Mr Matthew Maitra (Bullard Laboratories, University of Cambridge)
• Sunday 08 March 2020, 16:40-17:00
• Winstanley Lecture Hall, Trinity College.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Trinity College Science Society.

Part of the TCSS Annual Symposium

We present a numerically exact method for calculating the internal and external gravitational potential of aspherical and heterogeneous planets. Our approach is based on the transformation of Poisson’s equation into an equivalent equation posed on a spherical computational domain. This new problem is solved in an efficient iterative manner based on a hybrid pseudospectral/spectral element discretization. The main advantage of our method is that its computational cost reflects the planet’s geometric and structural complexity, being in many situations only marginally more expensive than boundary perturbation theory. Several numerical examples are presented to illustrate the method’s efficacy and potential range of applications.

This talk is part of the Trinity College Science Society (TCSS) series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• Chris Davis' list
• Guy Emerson's list
• Trinity College Science Society (TCSS)
• Winstanley Lecture Hall, Trinity College
• custom

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.