spiffe

spiffe is a 2.5-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) code developed at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) for the design and simulation of radio-frequency (RF) guns. This software is tailored to model the behavior of charged particles under the influence of electromagnetic fields, with a particular focus on the dynamics within RF guns. spiffe generates particle output files in the SDDS (Self-Describing Data Sets) format, which can be directly read and analyzed by the elegant software for downstream beamline simulations and analysis.

Overview

spiffe is designed to assist researchers and engineers in the field of accelerator physics by providing a computational tool to simulate and optimize RF gun designs. Its 2.5D approach strikes a balance between computational efficiency and the accuracy needed to capture essential physics, making it a valuable resource for studying particle dynamics in RF-driven systems.

Installation

Detailed instructions for installing spiffe, including system requirements, dependencies, and compilation steps, are available in the spiffe manual. To get started, clone the repository from GitHub:

git clone https://github.com/rtsoliday/spiffe.git

Then, refer to the manual for specific guidance on building and installing the software on your system.

Usage

spiffe operates by reading an input file that defines the simulation parameters, such as the RF gun geometry, electromagnetic field configurations, particle source properties, and boundary conditions. Once the simulation is executed, spiffe produces output files in the SDDS format, which can be post-processed using elegant or other SDDS-compatible tools.

A typical workflow might look like this:

1. Prepare an input file with the necessary simulation parameters.

2. Run the spiffe executable with the input file.

3. Analyze the resulting SDDS output files with elegant.

For detailed instructions on creating input files, running simulations, and interpreting outputs, please consult the spiffe manual.

Documentation

The spiffe manual is the primary resource for comprehensive information about the software. It covers:

• The theoretical background of RF gun design and PIC simulations.
• Details of the 2.5D approximation implemented in spiffe.
• Specifications for input file formats and parameters.
• Compilation and execution instructions.
• Guidance on analyzing SDDS output files. Users are encouraged to review the manual for in-depth insights into spiffe’s capabilities and usage.

Contributing

spiffe is hosted on GitHub, and contributions from the community are welcome. If you encounter bugs, have suggestions for enhancements, or wish to contribute features, please:

• Open an issue on the GitHub repository to report problems or propose ideas.
• Submit a pull request with your changes for review.

Your feedback and contributions can help improve spiffe for the broader accelerator physics community.

Authors

• M. Borland
• R. Soliday
• H. Shang

Acknowledgments

This project is developed and maintained by Accelerator Operations & Physics at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory.

For more details, visit the official SDDS documentation.