Particle-based sampling of N-body simulations

This paper introduces a novel approach for sampling the orbits of an N-body simulation. The gist of the method is to exploit individual phase-space coordinates acquired during integration of the equations of motion. This technique, which we dub 'particle-based sampling scheme', is tailor-made for resolving rapid time-variation of coordinates when needed. The PBaSS requires less disk space (by factors of 10 or more) to retrieve orbits at a chosen accuracy than those reconstructed using the classic snapshot approach. Furthermore, the PBaSS also allows a reconstruction of the system at any time-resolution not smaller than the smallest integration time-step in a post-simulation treatment, thus avoiding costly simulation reruns.