SimCodes

Note

In case of any issues arising during installation or running SIMBA, contact Alex Brynes.
SIMBA has been tested with the most recent versions of the codes mentioned below [2025], and may not be compatible with earlier versions.

SimCodes is a container for the particle accelerator tracking codes used by SIMBA.

While most of the accelerator code executables are open-source, we prefer not to provide these as an installable package. The user can install the following codes from the links below:

Note that the following python-based simulation packages are included in the dependencies of SIMBA:

SIMBA does, however, require these codes to be accessible. This functionality is provided in various ways.

Creating a SimCodes Directory

One can create a top-level directory containing sub-folders for each tracking code, and instantiate SIMBA with a simcodes argument:

import simba.Framework as fw
directory = "/path/to/working_directory"
simcodes_location = "/path/to/simcodes/folder"

fw = Framework(
    directory=directory,
    simcodes=simcodes_location,
)

Alternatively, one can set up SIMBA without this argument and set up the SimCodes location afterwards:

import simba.Framework as fw
directory = "/path/to/working_directory"
simcodes_location = "/path/to/simcodes/folder"

fw = Framework(directory=directory)

fw.setSimCodesLocation(simcodes_location)

These executables are then accessible to the run() function of the frameworkLattice object.

In simba/Executables.yaml the required structure is provided for this schema to work for different hardware architectures, either by the OS type or the computer name.

Editing the Executables.yaml file

If the user already has these executables installed, they can point directly to them in simba/Executables.yaml

Pointing to a specific location

An instance of SIMBA has access to these executables via the executables attribute, and these can be modified once SIMBA is instantiated.

For example, in order to point to a local install of the ELEGANT code, the user can run the following code:

import simba.Framework as fw
directory = "/path/to/working_directory"
elegant_location = "/path/to/elegant/binary"

fw = Framework(directory=directory)

fw.executables.define_elegant_command(location=elegant_location)

This will then allow SIMBA to call the correct version of ELEGANT.

Citing the codes used

Please consider citing the code(s) used if any work performed with SIMBA leads to a publication:

[1]

K. Floettmann. ASTRA. https://www.desy.de/ mpyflo/. URL: https://www.desy.de/~mpyflo/.

[2]

Pulsar Physics. General Particle Tracer. www.pulsar.nl/gpt. URL: http://www.pulsar.nl/gpt.

[3]

M. Borland. Elegant: A flexible SDDS-compliant code for accelerator simulation. Proceedings of ICAP'00, Darmstadt, Germany, 2000. URL: https://www1.aps.anl.gov/icms_files/lsnotes/files/APS_1418218.pdf.

[4]

M. Dohlus and T. Limberg. CSRtrack : Faster Calculation of 3-D CSR Effects. Proceedings of FEL 2004, Trieste, Italy, pages MOCOS05, 2004. URL: https://accelconf.web.cern.ch/f04/papers/MOCOS05/MOCOS05.PDF.

[5]

I. Agapov, G. Geloni, S. Tomin, and I. Zagorodnov. Ocelot: A software framework for synchrotron light source and FEL studies. Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A, 768:151–156, 2014. URL: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168900214010882, doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nima.2014.09.057.

[6]

J. Kaiser, C. Xu, A. Eichler, and A. Santamaria Garcia. Bridging the gap between machine learning and particle accelerator physics with high-speed, differentiable simulations. Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams, 27:054601, May 2024. URL: https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.27.054601, doi:10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.27.054601.

[7]

G. Iadarola, A. Abramov, X. Buffat, R. De Maria, D. Demetriadou, L. Deniau, P.D. Hermes, P. Kicsiny, P. M. Kruyt, A. Latina, S. Łopaciuk, L. Mether, K. Paraschou, T. Pieloni, G. Sterbini, F.F. Van der Veken, P. Belanger, D. Di Croce, M. Seidel, and L. van Riesen-Haupt. Xsuite: an integrated beam physics simulation framework. Proceedings of ICFA 68th Advanced Beam Dynamics Workshop on High-Intensity and High-Brightness Hadron Beams, pages TUA2I1, 2023. URL: https://proceedings.jacow.org/hb2023/papers/tua2i1.pdf, doi:10.18429/JACoW-HB2023-TUA2I1.

[8]

A Ferran Pousa, R Assmann, and A Martinez de la Ossa. Wake-t: a fast particle tracking code for plasma-based accelerators. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1350(1):012056, Nov 2019. URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1350/1/012056, doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1350/1/012056.

[9]

D. Angal-Kalinin, A. Bainbridge, A. D. Brynes, R. K. Buckley, S. R. Buckley, G. C. Burt, R. J. Cash, H. M. Castaneda Cortes, D. Christie, J. A. Clarke, R. Clarke, L. S. Cowie, P. A. Corlett, G. Cox, K. D. Dumbell, D. J. Dunning, B. D. Fell, K. Gleave, P. Goudket, A. R. Goulden, S. A. Griffiths, M. D. Hancock, A. Hannah, T. Hartnett, P. W. Heath, J. R. Henderson, C. Hill, P. Hindley, C. Hodgkinson, P. Hornickel, F. Jackson, J. K. Jones, T. J. Jones, N. Joshi, M. King, S. H. Kinder, N. J. Knowles, H. Kockelbergh, K. Marinov, S. L. Mathisen, J. W. McKenzie, K. J. Middleman, B. L. Militsyn, A. Moss, B. D. Muratori, T. C. Q. Noakes, W. Okell, A. Oates, T. H. Pacey, V. V. Paramanov, M. D. Roper, Y. Saveliev, D. J. Scott, B. J. A. Shepherd, R. J. Smith, W. Smith, E. W. Snedden, N. R. Thompson, C. Tollervey, R. Valizadeh, A. Vick, D. A. Walsh, T. Weston, A. E. Wheelhouse, P. H. Williams, J. T. G. Wilson, and A. Wolski. Design, specifications, and first beam measurements of the compact linear accelerator for research and applications front end. Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams, 23:044801, Apr 2020. URL: https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.23.044801, doi:10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.23.044801.

[10]

E. W. Snedden, D. Angal-Kalinin, A. R. Bainbridge, A. D. Brynes, S. R. Buckley, D. J. Dunning, J. R. Henderson, J. K. Jones, K. J. Middleman, T. J. Overton, T. H. Pacey, A. E. Pollard, Y. M. Saveliev, B. J. A. Shepherd, P. H. Williams, M. I. Colling, B. D. Fell, and G. Marshall. Specification and design for full energy beam exploitation of the compact linear accelerator for research and applications. Phys. Rev. Accel. Beams, 27:041602, Apr 2024. URL: https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.27.041602, doi:10.1103/PhysRevAccelBeams.27.041602.