I am a computational astrophysicist affiliated with the Center for Research & Development in Mathematics and Applications (CIDMA), in the group of Gravitational Geometry and Dynamics, and the Physics Department at the University of Aveiro in Portugal. My main research interests are computational N-body methods and the dynamical evolution of planetary and stellar systems.
I obtained my BSc in Astronomy in 2009 and my MSc in 2011, both at Leiden Observatory. My PhD thesis titled "Chaotic Dynamics in N-body Systems" was under supervision of Prof. Simon Portegies Zwart and co-promotor Prof. Douglas Heggie. My first post-doc position was in the Theory and Star formation Group at the University of Concepcion in Chile, in collaboration with Prof. Dominik Schleicher, Prof. Mike Fellhauer and Prof. Amelia Stutz. Currently, I am an FCT Post-doctoral Fellow collaborating with Prof. Alexandre Correia.
News:
- Visit to University of Concepcion, Concepcion, Chile
- Tjarda Boekholt wins CIDMA Young Doctor Award
- Visit to Tokyo University, Tokyo, Japan
Publications:
2018
- Numerical verification of the time reversibility of Newtons equations of motion:
Fighting exponential divergence
Portegies Zwart, S. F. and Boekholt, T. C. N.
Communications in Nonlinear Science and Numerical Simulation, Volume 61, p.
160-166, 08/2018. - Collisions in Primordial Star Clusters: Formation Pathway for intermediate mass
black holes
Reinoso, B., Schleicher, D. R. G., Fellhauer, M., Klessen, R. S. , and Boekholt,
T. C. N.
Accepted in Astronomy & Astrophysics, eprint arXiv:1801.05891. - Formation of massive seed black holes via collisions and accretion
Boekholt, T. C. N., Schleicher, D. R. G., Fellhauer, M., Klessen, R., Reinoso,
B., Stutz, A. M. and Haemmerle, L.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 476, Issue 1, p.366-
380, May, 2018.
2017
- Dynamical Ejections of Stars due to an Accelerating Gas Filament
Boekholt, T. C. N., Stutz, A. M., Fellhauer, M., Schleicher, D. R. G. and
Matus Carrillo, D. R.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, vol. 471, issue 3, pp. 3590-
3598, November, 2017. - The binarity of the local white dwarf population
Toonen, S., Hollands, M., Gaensicke, B. T. and Boekholt, T. C. N.
Astronomy & Astrophysics, Volume 602, id.A16, 23 pp., June, 2017.
2016
- The Origin of Chaos in the Orbit of Comet 1P/Halley
Boekholt, T. C. N., Pelupessy, F. I., Heggie, D. C. and Portegies Zwart, S. F.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 461, Issue 4, p.3576-
3584, October, 2016. - The evolution of the Sun's birth cluster and the search for the solar siblings with Gaia
Martinez-Barbosa, C. A., Brown, A. G. A., Boekholt, T. C. N., Portegies
Zwart, S. F., Antiche, E. and Antoja T.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, Volume 457, Issue 1, p.1062-
1075, March, 2016.
2015
- On the Reliability of N-body Simulations
Boekholt, T. C. N. and Portegies Zwart, S. F.
Computational Astrophysics and Cosmology, Vol. 2, p. 2, March, 2015.
2014
- A Keplerian-based Hamiltonian splitting for gravitational N-body simulations
Gonçalves Ferrari, G., Boekholt, T. C. N. and Portegies Zwart, S. F.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 440, 719-730, May, 2014. - On the Minimal Accuracy Required for Simulating Self-gravitating Systems by
Means of Direct N-body Methods
Portegies Zwart, S. F. and Boekholt, T. C. N.
Astrophysical Journal Letters, 785, L3, April, 2014.
Presentations:
- Colloquium at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics
Outreach:
- My youtube page with some animations of my simulations
- Massive black hole formation in Science News (based on Boekholt et al. 2018)
- Halley's Comet in Astronomy Now and Discover (based on Boekholt et al. 2016)
In Dutch:
- Chaos ontrafeld on astronomie.nl (based on Portegies Zwart and Boekhotl 2018)
- Precieze berekeningen on astronomie.nl (based on Portegies Zwart and Boekholt 2014 and Boekholt and Portegies Zwart 2015)
Contact information:
Full name: Tjarda Coenraad Nico Boekholt
Position: FCT Post-doctoral Fellow
Office: Gr@v room (13.3.28), Physics Building, University of Aveiro
Email: boekholt@ua.pt
Useful links: