Paper detail

Actions, angles and frequencies for numerically integrated orbits

We present a method for extracting actions, angles and frequencies from an orbit's time series. The method recovers the generating function that maps an analytic phase-space torus to the torus to which the orbit is confined by simultaneously solving the constraints provided by each time step. We test the method by recovering the actions and frequencies of a triaxial Stäckel potential, and use it to investigate the structure of orbits in a triaxial potential that has been fitted to our Galaxy's Sagittarius stream. The method promises to be useful for analysing N-body simulations. It also takes a step towards constructing distribution functions for the triaxial components of our Galaxy, such as the bar and dark halo.