List of plasma physics software

This is a list of plasma physics software, including programs and tools used for simulating, modeling, and analyzing plasma behavior, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), and related phenomena. These software packages are used in research, fusion power studies, and plasma engineering.

Simulation and modeling

Software, tool Note, reference License
BOUT++ 3D plasma fluid simulation code used for edge-localized mode (ELM) and turbulence studies in tokamaks.[1][2] Open source
FLASH Adaptive mesh refinement code for simulating compressible plasmas and astrophysical flows.[3] Proprietary
Gkeyll Continuum kinetic simulation framework for plasma physics and fusion applications. Supports gyrokinetic, Vlasov, and fluid models.[4] Open source

Particle-in-cell (PIC) codes

Software, tool Note, reference License
EPOCH PIC code for high-intensity laser-plasma interactions.[5] Open source
LSP Particle-in-cell and hybrid plasma simulation code.[5] Proprietary
Magic PIC software used for plasma simulations[6] Proprietary
OSIRIS Fully relativistic, electromagnetic PIC code for plasma and laser-plasma simulations.[7] Proprietary
Starfish Particle-in-cell plasma simulation code.[8] Proprietary
VPIC Vector Particle-In-Cell code designed for large-scale plasma simulations on supercomputers[9][10] Proprietary
VSim Particle-in-cell and electromagnetic plasma simulation software.[11][12] Proprietary

Plasma physics modeling codes

Software, tool Note, reference License
CFD-ACE+ Multiphysics computational software including plasma simulations.[13] Proprietary
COMSOL General multiphysics simulation platform with plasma modules.[14] Proprietary
Quantemol-VT Commercial plasma modeling software for molecular and quantum plasma simulations.[15] Proprietary
STAR-CCM+ Multiphysics simulation platform including plasma modeling modules.[16] Proprietary
USim Commercial plasma and multiphysics modeling software[17] Proprietary
VizGlow Commercial software for modeling thermal plasmas and plasma-material interactions.[18] Proprietary
VizSpark Thermal plasma modeling software for industrial and research applications.[19] Proprietary

Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) software

Software, tool Note, reference License
ATHENA++ High-order Godunov code for astrophysical MHD simulations.[20] Open source
M3D-C1 Extended MHD code for simulating tokamak plasmas, including stability and transport analysis.[21] Proprietary
NIMROD Nonlinear MHD code for modeling magnetically confined plasmas, including tokamak disruptions.[22] Proprietary
EOF-Library Energy-conserving orbit-following library for kinetic plasma simulations, designed for coupling energetic particle dynamics to MHD and hybrid models.[23] Open source
PLUTO Modular code for astrophysical and laboratory plasma simulations with MHD, relativistic, and multi-fluid capabilities.[24] Open source
VAC (Versatile Advection Code) General-purpose MHD code for astrophysics and laboratory plasmas.[25][26] Proprietary

Data analysis and visualization

Software, tool Note, reference License
Matplotlib Python library commonly used for plotting and analyzing simulation results.[27] Open source
ParaView Multi-platform data analysis and visualization application suitable for plasma physics datasets.[28] Open source
VisIt Visualization tool for 2D and 3D plasma simulation data.[29][30][31] Open source

Experimental and diagnostic tools

Software, tool Note, reference License
ADAS (Atomic Data and Analysis Structure) Database and software for analyzing plasma spectroscopy.[32] Proprietary
SOLPS-ITER Software for simulating plasma transport in the edge and scrape-off layer of tokamaks[33][34] Proprietary
TRANSP Transport code for analyzing experimental tokamak plasmas.[35][36] Proprietary

See also

Plasma physics research institutes and programs

References

  1. ^ Dudson, B.D.; Umansky, M.V.; Xu, X.Q.; Snyder, P.B.; Wilson, H.R. (September 2009). "BOUT++: A framework for parallel plasma fluid simulations". Computer Physics Communications. 180 (9): 1467–1480. arXiv:0810.5757. Bibcode:2009CoPhC.180.1467D. doi:10.1016/j.cpc.2009.03.008.
  2. ^ Seto, Haruki; Dudson, Benjamin D.; Xu, Xue-Qiao; Yagi, Masatoshi (February 2023). "A BOUT++ extension for full annular tokamak edge MHD and turbulence simulations". Computer Physics Communications. 283 108568. Bibcode:2023CoPhC.28308568S. doi:10.1016/j.cpc.2022.108568. OSTI 2203615.
  3. ^ Weirs, Greg; Dwarkadas, Vikram; Plewa, Tomek; Tomkins, Chris; Marr-Lyon, Mark (2005). "Validating the Flash Code: Vortex-Dominated Flows". Astrophysics and Space Science. 298 (1–2): 341–346. arXiv:astro-ph/0405410. Bibcode:2005Ap&SS.298..341W. doi:10.1007/s10509-005-3966-5.
  4. ^ Shi, E. L.; Hammett, G. W.; Stoltzfus-Dueck, T.; Hakim, A. (June 2017). "Gyrokinetic continuum simulation of turbulence in a straight open-field-line plasma". Journal of Plasma Physics. 83 (3) 905830304. arXiv:1702.03052. Bibcode:2017JPlPh..83c9004S. doi:10.1017/S002237781700037X.
  5. ^ a b Smith, Joseph R.; Orban, Chris; Rahman, Nashad; McHugh, Brendan; Oropeza, Ricky; Chowdhury, Enam A. (July 2021). "A particle-in-cell code comparison for ion acceleration: EPOCH, LSP, and WarpX". Physics of Plasmas. 28 (7) 074505. arXiv:2103.17248. Bibcode:2021PhPl...28g4505S. doi:10.1063/5.0053109.
  6. ^ Woods, Andrew J.; Ludeking, Lars D. (2009). "Magic electromagnetic FDTD-PIC code dense plasma model comparison with LSP". 2009 IEEE International Conference on Plasma Science - Abstracts. p. 1. doi:10.1109/PLASMA.2009.5227385. ISBN 978-1-4244-2617-1.
  7. ^ Lee, Roman P.; Pierce, Jacob R.; Miller, Kyle G.; Almanza, Maria; Tableman, Adam; Decyk, Viktor K.; Fonseca, Ricardo A.; Alves, E. Paulo; Mori, Warren B. (February 2025). "Acceleration of the particle-in-cell code Osiris with graphics processing units". Journal of Plasma Physics. 91 (1) E8. Bibcode:2025JPlPh..91E...8L. doi:10.1017/S0022377824001569.
  8. ^ Senig, James; Wang, Xiaowen (2020). "Numerical Simulation of Plasma Interfaces Using the Starfish Plasma Simulation Code". AIAA Aviation 2020 Forum. doi:10.2514/6.2020-3245. ISBN 978-1-62410-598-2.
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  10. ^ Tan, Nigel; Bird, Robert F.; Chen, Guangye; Luedtke, Scott V.; Albright, Brian J.; Taufer, Michela (April 2022). "Analysis of Vector Particle-In-Cell (VPIC) memory usage optimizations on cutting-edge computer architectures". Journal of Computational Science. 60 101566. doi:10.1016/j.jocs.2022.101566.
  11. ^ "Tech-X Corp. Releases VSim 7". Microwave Journal.
  12. ^ Hicks, Nathaniel K.; Bowman, Amanda; Godden, Katarina (3 December 2019). "Particle-in-Cell Simulation of Quasi-Neutral Plasma Trapping by RF Multipole Electric Fields". Physics. 1 (3): 392–401. Bibcode:2019Physi...1..392H. doi:10.3390/physics1030028.
  13. ^ Ikeda, Kei (2005). "4034 Plasma Equipment Modeling using CFD-ACE+". The Proceedings of the Computational Mechanics Conference. 2005 (18): 461–462. doi:10.1299/jsmecmd.2005.18.461.
  14. ^ Mehrabifard, Ramin (June 2023). "Two-dimensional simulation of argon dielectric barrier discharge DBD) plasma actuator with COMSOL Multiphysics". Radiation Physics and Engineering. doi:10.22034/RPE.2023.392080.1127. SSRN 4420891.
  15. ^ Rajendiran, S.; Rossall, A.K.; Gibson, A.; Wagenaars, E. (December 2014). "Modelling of laser ablation and reactive oxygen plasmas for pulsed laser deposition of zinc oxide". Surface and Coatings Technology. 260: 417–423. doi:10.1016/j.surfcoat.2014.06.062.
  16. ^ Gehrig, Monica L.; Humrickhouse, Paul W. (September 2024). "Assessment of 1-D Channel Flow Models for Tritium Breeding Blanket Cooling". IEEE Transactions on Plasma Science. 52 (9): 4217–4222. Bibcode:2024ITPS...52.4217G. doi:10.1109/TPS.2024.3375625.
  17. ^ Kundrapu, Madhusudhan; Veitzer, Seth A.; Stoltz, Peter H.; Beckwith, Kristian R. C.; Smith, Jonathan (2017). "Multi-fluid simulation models for inductively coupled plasma sources". Fifth International Symposium on Negative Ions. AIP Conference Proceedings. 1869 (1): 020001. Bibcode:2017AIPC.1869b0001K. doi:10.1063/1.4995707.
  18. ^ Zhang, Anqi; Scarcelli, Riccardo; Wallner, Thomas; Breden, Douglas; Karpatne, Anand; Raja, Laxminarayan L.; Ekoto, Isaac; Wolk, Benjamin (2018). "Numerical investigation of nanosecond pulsed discharge in air at above-atmospheric pressures". Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics. 51 (34). Bibcode:2018JPhD...51H5201Z. doi:10.1088/1361-6463/aad262. OSTI 1464636.
  19. ^ Tambasco, Corey; Li, Delong; Hall, Matthew; Matthews, Ronald (2021). "Spark Ignition Discharge Characteristics under Quiescent Conditions and with Convective Flows". SAE Technical Paper Series. Vol. 1. doi:10.4271/2021-01-1157.
  20. ^ Sun, Xiaochen; Bai, Xue-Ning (8 June 2023). "The magnetohydrodynamic-particle-in-cell module in athena++ : implementation and code tests". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 523 (3): 3328–3347. doi:10.1093/mnras/stad1548.
  21. ^ Kleiner, A.; Ferraro, N.M.; Sweeney, R.; Lyons, B.C.; Reinke, M. (2025). "Extended-MHD simulations of disruption mitigation via massive gas injection in SPARC". Nuclear Fusion. 65 (2): 026015. Bibcode:2025NucFu..65b6015K. doi:10.1088/1741-4326/ad9ec4.
  22. ^ King, J. R.; Pankin, A. Y.; Kruger, S. E.; Snyder, P. B. (2016). "The impact of collisionality, FLR, and parallel closure effects on instabilities in the tokamak pedestal: Numerical studies with the NIMROD code". Physics of Plasmas. 23 (6) 062123. arXiv:1702.00042. Bibcode:2016PhPl...23f2123K. doi:10.1063/1.4954302.
  23. ^ Vencels, Juris; Råback, Peter; Geža, Vadims (2019). "EOF-Library: Open-source Elmer FEM and OpenFOAM coupler for electromagnetics and fluid dynamics". SoftwareX. 9: 68. Bibcode:2019SoftX...9...68V. doi:10.1016/j.softx.2019.01.007.
  24. ^ White, Christopher J.; Mullen, Patrick D.; Jiang 姜, Yan-Fei 燕飞; Davis, Shane W.; Stone, James M.; Morozova, Viktoriya; Zhang 张, Lizhong 力中 (2023). "An Extension of the Athena++ Code Framework for Radiation-magnetohydrodynamics in General Relativity Using a Finite-solid-angle Discretization". The Astrophysical Journal. 949 (2): 103. arXiv:2302.04283. Bibcode:2023ApJ...949..103W. doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acc8cf.
  25. ^ Shelyag, S.; Fedun, V.; Erdélyi, R. (2008). "Magnetohydrodynamic code for gravitationally-stratified media". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 486 (2): 655–662. Bibcode:2008A&A...486..655S. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:200809800.
  26. ^ Casse, F.; Marcowith, A. (2003). "Relativistic particle transport in extragalactic jets". Astronomy & Astrophysics. 404 (2): 405–421. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20030547.
  27. ^ Foley, Samantha; Elwasif, Wael; Bernholdt, David (2011). The Integrated Plasma Simulator: A Flexible Python Framework for Coupled Multiphysics Simulation (Report). doi:10.2172/1034707. OSTI 1034707.
  28. ^ https://conferences.iaea.org/event/393/contributions/36711/
  29. ^ "Visualization Techniques for Data on a 3D Grid". Princeton Research Computing.
  30. ^ "Flux Surfaces within Plasma from Tokamak Simulation". Princeton Research Computing.
  31. ^ Bethel, E. Wes; Childs, Hank; Hansen, Charles, eds. (2012). High Performance Visualization. doi:10.1201/b12985. ISBN 978-0-429-10535-7.
  32. ^ Summers, H. P. (2000). "The atomic data and analysis structure". AIP Conference Proceedings. Vol. 543. pp. 304–312. doi:10.1063/1.1336288.
  33. ^ Islam, M. S.; Lore, J. D.; Kumar, A.; Dhamale, G.; Baldwin, M. J.; Nishijima, D.; Tynan, G. R.; Rapp, J. (2025). "Simulation of plasma and neutral transport in PISCES-RF using SOLPS-ITER*". Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion. 67 (2): 025002. Bibcode:2025PPCF...67b5002I. doi:10.1088/1361-6587/ada1f6.
  34. ^ Wiesen, S.; Reiter, D.; Kotov, V.; Baelmans, M.; Dekeyser, W.; Kukushkin, A.S.; Lisgo, S.W.; Pitts, R.A.; Rozhansky, V.; Saibene, G.; Veselova, I.; Voskoboynikov, S. (August 2015). "The new SOLPS-ITER code package". Journal of Nuclear Materials. 463: 480–484. Bibcode:2015JNuM..463..480W. doi:10.1016/j.jnucmat.2014.10.012.
  35. ^ Pankin, A.Y.; Breslau, J.; Gorelenkova, M.; Andre, R.; Grierson, B.; Sachdev, J.; Goliyad, M.; Perumpilly, G. (2025). "TRANSP integrated modeling code for interpretive and predictive analysis of tokamak plasmas". Computer Physics Communications. 312 109611. arXiv:2406.07781. Bibcode:2025CoPhC.31209611P. doi:10.1016/j.cpc.2025.109611. OSTI 2551910.
  36. ^ Breslau, Joshua; Gorelenkova, Marina; Poli, Francesca; Sachdev, Jai; Pankin, Alexei; Perumpilly, Gopan; Yuan, Xingqiu; Glant, Laszlo (2018). TRANSP (Report). doi:10.11578/dc.20180627.4.