Greengard and Rokhlin: a fast algorithm for particle simulations

What changed

Presented a hierarchical algorithm evaluating Coulombic or gravitational interactions for N particles with work proportional to N to the stated accuracy, instead of direct quadratic pairwise evaluation.

Scientific scope

The record is the exact 1987 Journal of Computational Physics paper. Earlier multipole expansions, Barnes–Hut, later adaptive fast multipole methods and application-specific implementations remain separate.

Evidence

The linked sources identify this contribution and its scope. WRS has not independently reconstructed the scientific claims. The record is the exact 1987 Journal of Computational Physics paper. Earlier multipole expansions, Barnes–Hut, later adaptive fast multipole methods and application-specific implementations remain separate.

Contributors

• Leslie Greengard · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.
• Vladimir Rokhlin · SCIENCE: Named source author of the scoped work; individual effort shares are not measured.

• Greengard and Rokhlin, A fast algorithm for particle simulations
• Crossref record for the fast particle algorithm

Provisional WRS assessment, edition 2026-10-16.1. Independent expert calibration is pending. This grade does not certify correctness or assign ownership.

Full scientific record · Browse contribution grades · Request a correction