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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0The Astrophysical Journal

Modeling Globular Cluster Stellar Streams with a Basis-expansion N -body Code

  • Brian T. Cook1
  • Kerwann Tep1,2
  • Carl L. Rodriguez1
  • Leah English3
  • Tjitske Starkenburg4,5
  • Robyn Sanderson6
  • Newlin C. Weatherford7
  • Sarah Pearson8,9
  • Nondh Panithanpaisal7,10
10 affiliations
  1. 1University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  2. 2Observatoire Astronomique de Strasbourg
  3. 3Illinois Institute of Technology
  4. 4Northwestern University
  5. 5NSF-Simons AI Institute for the Sky (SkAI)
  6. 6University of Pennsylvania
  7. 7Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science
  8. 8University of Copenhagen
  9. 9Technical University of Denmark
  10. 10California Institute of Technology
Open at sourcePDFDOICite

Abstract

Globular cluster stellar streams probe galaxy-formation processes and can potentially reveal the distribution of dark matter in galaxies. In many theoretical studies, streams are modeled with particle-spray or direct N -body codes. But particle-spray methods abstract away the internal dynamics of the progenitor by making strong assumptions about the escape physics, while direct N -body is prohibitively expensive for realistic ( N > 10 ⁵ ) systems. In this paper, we present the stream-modeling capabilities of KRIOS , a new basis-expansion N -body code for collisional stellar dynamics, that bridges this runtime versus accuracy gap. We show that KRIOS reproduces NBODY6++GPU cluster models, and their associated streams, more accurately than particle spray in a fraction of the NBODY6++GPU wall-clock time. We then compare KRIOS to various particle-spray methods on 10 orbits similar to known Milky Way streams. The morphology and kinematics of these streams most disagree when the progenitor is tightly bound to the host, as these systems are often subject to stronger tidal forces. Finally, we discuss which elements of the progenitor physics are most important for modeling stellar streams and how these might be incorporated into particle-spray methods.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{cook2026modeling,
  title = {{Modeling Globular Cluster Stellar Streams with a Basis-expansion N -body Code}},
  author = {Brian T. Cook and Kerwann Tep and Carl L. Rodriguez and Leah English and Tjitske Starkenburg and Robyn Sanderson and Newlin C. Weatherford and Sarah Pearson and Nondh Panithanpaisal},
  journal = {The Astrophysical Journal},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.3847/1538-4357/aea6a2},
  url = {https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea6a2},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Modeling Globular Cluster Stellar Streams with a Basis-expansion N -body Code
AU  - Brian T. Cook
AU  - Kerwann Tep
AU  - Carl L. Rodriguez
AU  - Leah English
AU  - Tjitske Starkenburg
AU  - Robyn Sanderson
AU  - Newlin C. Weatherford
AU  - Sarah Pearson
AU  - Nondh Panithanpaisal
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/14
JO  - The Astrophysical Journal
DO  - 10.3847/1538-4357/aea6a2
UR  - https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/aea6a2
AB  - Globular cluster stellar streams probe galaxy-formation processes and can potentially reveal the distribution of dark matter in galaxies. In many theoretical studies, streams are modeled with particle-spray or direct N -body codes. But particle-spray methods abstract away the internal dynamics of the progenitor by making strong assumptions about the escape physics, while direct N -body is prohibitively expensive for realistic ( N > 10 ⁵ ) systems. In this paper, we present the stream-modeling capabilities of KRIOS , a new basis-expansion N -body code for collisional stellar dynamics, that bridges this runtime versus accuracy gap. We show that KRIOS reproduces NBODY6++GPU cluster models, and their associated streams, more accurately than particle spray in a fraction of the NBODY6++GPU wall-clock time. We then compare KRIOS to various particle-spray methods on 10 orbits similar to known Milky Way streams. The morphology and kinematics of these streams most disagree when the progenitor is tightly bound to the host, as these systems are often subject to stronger tidal forces. Finally, we discuss which elements of the progenitor physics are most important for modeling stellar streams and how these might be incorporated into particle-spray methods.
SN  - 0004-637X
SN  - 1538-4357
ER  -