Speaker
Description
The evolution of galaxies in their mutual gravitational potentials is a recurrent problem in extragalactic astrophysics. It is commonly modeled under several simplifying assumptions, which break down when more than one galaxy is extended and massive, when galaxies are overlapping, or when the interaction involves more than two objects. I will review the usual methods for orbital integration, and show that their underlying assumptions are violated in a range of scenarios to which they are frequently applied. I offer a simple implementation of a more accurate scheme, and show systematic differences in the evolution of the Local Group of galaxies, and of the Milky Way satellite galaxies. I argue that, as observational data is rapidly improving, the effects of inaccurate orbital integration should no longer be ignored.