SPH is the shorthand for Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics. This method is a Lagrangian method which means that it involves following the motion of elements of fluid. These elements have the characteristics of particles and the method is called a particle method. A useful review of SPH (Monaghan 1992) gives the basic technique and how it can be applied to numerous problems relevant to astrophysics. You can get some basic SPH programs from http) /www.maths.monash.edu.au/jjm/sphlect In the present lecture I will assume that the student has studied this review and therefore understands the basic principles. In today's lecture I plan to approach the equations from a different perspective by using a variational principle.

• J. J. MONAGHAN(Epsilon Laboratory, Department of Mathematics and Statistics Monash University)