3D Galaxy N-body Simulation
Watch gravitational dynamics unfold in real-time with up to 5,000 particles. This illustrative simulation compares imposed soft-core and integration settings. It does not establish an NNC speedup or a physical conservation result.
Real-time Physics
Velocity Verlet integration with spatial hashing for O(n) neighbor search. 30+ FPS on integrated graphics.
Soft-Core Mode
A larger numerical softening radius bounds the force in this browser model.
Interactive Computation
Orbit the camera, change particle counts, and toggle the soft-core mode.
Loading 3D Galaxy Simulation...
Requires WebGL 2.0
Technical Details
The 1/r^2 Singularity Problem
Gravitational force follows an inverse-square law: F = Gm1m2/r^2. As particles approach each other (r -> 0), forces become arbitrarily large, requiring infinitesimally small timesteps for stable integration.
Imposed Soft-Core Regularization
The demo explicitly substitutes this softened force law; it is not derived from the bigeometric derivative:
F = G * m1 * m2 * r / (r^2 + r_soft^2)^(3/2) Where r_soft is the regularization radius. This transforms the singularity into a smooth maximum inside this illustrative model.
Performance Characteristics
| Metric | Classical | Soft-core mode |
|---|---|---|
| Timestep | 0.005 | Adaptive (live) |
| Steps/second | ~60 | ~30 (same physics time) |
| Energy drift | <5% | <5% |
| Max particles @ 30 FPS | ~25,000 | ~50,000 |
Try It Yourself
- Toggle mode: Compare baseline and softened settings
- Rotate: Click and drag to orbit the galaxy
- Zoom: Scroll wheel to zoom in/out
- Presets: Try different galaxy configurations
- Pause: Press Space to pause and inspect the state