Is "Horsing Around on Saturn" (2005) inspired by 
"How to create a ring of N bodies" (2000)?

here one paragraph cited from
http://orfe.princeton.edu/~rvdb/tex/astrocon05/Saturn.pdf :


Consider a large collection of masses all having about the same mass. In fact, for
simplicity, assume that they all have exactly the same mass. Think of these masses as
particles making up the rings of Saturn. It is well known that it is difficult to find stable
solutions to the equal-mass n-body problem for n >= 3. However, for n = 2 (i.e., the 2-body
problem), the problem is trivial: if the two bodies start out orbiting their center of mass in
an elliptical orbit, then this solution is stable and periodic for all time. A special case of this
scenario occurs when the elliptical orbits are in fact circular. In this case, the two bodies
exhibit circular orbits about the center of mass which lies exactly halfway between them
(because the masses are the same). In some sense this is a trivial example of a ring system
where the ring consists of just two particles and the center planet is missing. Now, to make
this more like a real ring system, let's set n >= 3 and distribute the masses uniformly in a
circle around their center of mass and give them appropriate initial velocities so that they
ought to exhibit circular motion about the center of mass. By simple symmetry arguments,
it is easy to see that this must be a valid solution to the n-body problem. But, as even the
most elementary implementation of an n-body simulator will quickly reveal, such a system is
unstable for all n >= 3. The reason is very simple. Imagine that one of the bodies gets ahead
in its orbit by the tiniest amount. Then the pull from the body that is ahead of it increases
slightly (because it is now closer) and the pull from the body that lags it decreases (for an
analgous reason). Hence, the body draws even further ahead and we see that the system is
unstable. Figure 1 shows some snapshots illustrating this instability for the 3-body problem.