Title:
Challenges in understanding the formation of planetary systems

Abstract:
Although over 300 planets are now cataloged around other stars, a
complete model for planet formation is currently lacking. A number of
characteristics of exoplanets - including orbital ellipticities, and
orbital periods - indicate that strong dynamical (gravitational)
interaction may have taken place amongst objects in a majority of
known systems. I will outline a computational approach to
investigating this possibility that involves the high precision
simulation of hundreds to thousands of planetary systems over tens of
millions of years in order to derive statistical expectations that
can be tested against observation. Challenges include the need to
sample the distribution "tails" of the planetary population - in
particular the planets on very large orbits that are just beginning
to be successfully imaged.