The best of GYMNOS: A users guide
CA (United States) Lawrence Livermore National Lab., D Hewett, USDOE, Washington, DC (United States), D Larson · 1993
The code GYMNOS is a 2.5D magnetostatic PIC code that is distinguished from the multitude of similar codes by its ability to handle boundary conditions and internal structures. This code was started (see next section) during the period starting from December 1987 and the major sections were completed and in routine use by the end of 1990. The code is written in R-Z geometry (axisymmetric m=0 only) but could easily be modified to handle an X-Z configuration. The several competitors of this code, having similar (but we believe less general) capabilities, distinguish themselves in a different way: They have very formal, thick instruction manuals and usually command an army of people to maintain both the code and said manual. We are here attempting to convince the reader that GYMNOS is better in these two regards. Offered here is a description of a code with a great deal of physics capability coupled with no interactive graphics capability and very little system capability. These later two subjects contribute most of the complexity in both the code and manual in the competition! Expressed another way, the user, will almost never be thwarted by unexpected system changes on Friday afternoon. The price extracted is that the user is required to monitor/babysit runs so that output is ``hand-delivered`` to the out I put medium and properly archived to prevent loss. A further spinoff of this simplicity is that ``single pilot`` operation is easy. And, the only manual is this modest document.