Runko: Modern multiphysics toolbox for plasma simulations

Abstract

Runko is a new open-source plasma simulation framework implemented in C++ and Python. It is designed to function as an easy-to-extend general toolbox for simulating astrophysical plasmas with different theoretical and numerical models. Computationally intensive low-level kernels are written in modern C++ taking advantage of polymorphic classes, multiple inheritance, and template metaprogramming. High-level functionality is operated with Python scripts. The hybrid program design ensures good code performance together with ease of use. The framework has a modular object-oriented design that allows the user to easily add new numerical algorithms to the system. The code can be run on various computing platforms ranging from laptops (shared-memory systems) to massively parallel supercomputer architectures (distributed-memory systems). The framework supports heterogeneous multiphysics simulations in which different physical solvers can be combined and run simultaneously. Here we showcase the framework's relativistic particle-in-cell (PIC) module by presenting (i) 1D simulations of relativistic Weibel instability, (ii) 2D simulations of relativistic kinetic turbulence in a suddenly stirred magnetically-dominated pair plasma, and (iii) 3D simulations of collisionless shocks in an unmagnetized medium.

18 pages, 7 figures. Accepted to A&A. Code available from https://github.com/natj/runko

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Cited by in corpus (6)

• Radiative plasma simulations of black hole accretion flow coronae in the hard and soft states
• Relativistic Collisionless Shocks in Inhomogeneous Magnetized Plasmas
• Scale Statistics of Current Sheets in Relativistic Collisionless Plasma Turbulence
• AHKASH: a new Hybrid particle-in-cell code for simulations of astrophysical collisionless plasma
• Machine-Learning Characterization of Intermittency in Relativistic Pair Plasma Turbulence: Single and Double Sheet Structures
• Turbulence Mode Decomposition and Anisotropy in Magnetically Dominated Collisionless Plasmas