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<TITLE>SPARTA Users Manual</TITLE>
<META NAME="docnumber" CONTENT="4 Sep 2024 version">
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<CENTER><A HREF = "https://sparta.github.io">SPARTA WWW Site</A> - <A HREF = "Manual.html">SPARTA Documentation</A> - <A HREF = "Section_commands.html#comm">SPARTA Commands</A> 
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<H1></H1>

<CENTER><H3>SPARTA Documentation 
</H3></CENTER>
<CENTER><H4>4 Sep 2024 version 
</H4></CENTER>
<H4>Version info: 
</H4>
<P>The SPARTA "version" is the date when it was released, such as 3 Mar
2014. SPARTA is updated continuously.  Whenever we fix a bug or add a
feature, we release it immediately, and post a notice on <A HREF = "https://sparta.github.io/bug.html">this page of
the WWW site</A>.  Each dated copy of SPARTA contains all the
features and bug-fixes up to and including that version date. The
version date is printed to the screen and logfile every time you run
SPARTA. It is also in the file src/version.h and in the SPARTA
directory name created when you unpack a tarball, and at the top of
the first page of the manual (this page).
</P>
<UL><LI>If you browse the HTML doc pages on the SPARTA WWW site, they always
describe the most current version of SPARTA. 

<LI>If you browse the HTML doc pages included in your tarball, they
describe the version you have. 

<LI>The <A HREF = "Manual.pdf">PDF file</A> on the WWW site or in the tarball is updated
about once per month.  This is because it is large, and we don't want
it to be part of very patch. 

<LI>At some point, there also will be a <A HREF = "Developer.pdf">Developer.pdf</A> file
in the doc directory, which describes the internal structure and
algorithms of SPARTA. 
</UL>
<P>SPARTA stands for Stochastic PArallel Rarefied-gas Time-accurate
Analyzer.
</P>
<P>SPARTA is a Direct Simulation Montel Carlo (DSMC) simulator designed
to run efficiently on parallel computers.  It was developed at Sandia
National Laboratories, a US Department of Energy facility, with
funding from the DOE.  It is an open-source code, distributed freely
under the terms of the GNU Public License (GPL), or sometimes by
request under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License
(LGPL).
</P>
<P>The primary developers of SPARTA are <A HREF = "https://sjplimp.github.io">Steve Plimpton</A>, and Michael
Gallis who can be contacted at sjplimp at gmail.com and magalli at
sandia.gov.  The <A HREF = "https://sparta.github.io">SPARTA WWW Site</A> at https://sparta.github.io has
more information about the code and its uses.
</P>




<HR>

<P>The SPARTA documentation is organized into the following sections.  If
you find errors or omissions in this manual or have suggestions for
useful information to add, please send an email to the developers so
we can improve the SPARTA documentation.
</P>
<P>Once you are familiar with SPARTA, you may want to bookmark <A HREF = "Section_commands.html#comm">this
page</A> at Section_commands.html#comm since
it gives quick access to documentation for all SPARTA commands.
</P>
<P><A HREF = "Manual.pdf">PDF file</A> of the entire manual, generated by
<A HREF = "http://www.easysw.com/htmldoc">htmldoc</A>
</P>
<OL><LI><A HREF = "Section_intro.html">Introduction</A> 

<UL>  1.1 <A HREF = "Section_intro.html#intro_1">What is SPARTA</A> 
<BR>
  1.2 <A HREF = "Section_intro.html#intro_2">SPARTA features</A> 
<BR>
  1.3 <A HREF = "Section_intro.html#intro_3">Grids and surfaces in SPARTA</A> 
<BR>
  1.4 <A HREF = "Section_intro.html#intro_4">Open source distribution</A> 
<BR>
  1.5 <A HREF = "Section_intro.html#intro_5">Acknowledgments and citations</A> 
<BR></UL>
<LI><A HREF = "Section_start.html">Getting started</A> 

<UL>  2.1 <A HREF = "Section_start.html#start_1">What's in the SPARTA distribution</A> 
<BR>
  2.2 <A HREF = "Section_start.html#start_2">Making SPARTA</A> 
<BR>
  2.3 <A HREF = "Section_start.html#start_3">Building SPARTA with optional packages</A> 
<BR>
  2.4 <A HREF = "Section_start.html#start_4">Building SPARTA as a library</A> 
<BR>
  2.5 <A HREF = "Section_start.html#start_5">Testing SPARTA</A> 
<BR>
  2.6 <A HREF = "Section_start.html#start_6">Running SPARTA</A> 
<BR>
  2.7 <A HREF = "Section_start.html#start_7">Command-line options</A> 
<BR>
  2.8 <A HREF = "start_8">Screen output</A> 
<BR></UL>
<LI><A HREF = "Section_commands.html">Commands</A> 

<UL>  3.1 <A HREF = "Section_commands.html#cmd_1">SPARTA input script</A> 
<BR>
  3.2 <A HREF = "Section_commands.html#cmd_2">Parsing rules</A> 
<BR>
  3.3 <A HREF = "Section_commands.html#cmd_3">Input script structure</A> 
<BR>
  3.4 <A HREF = "Section_commands.html#cmd_4">Commands listed by category</A> 
<BR>
  3.5 <A HREF = "Section_commands.html#cmd_5">Commands listed alphabetically</A> 
<BR></UL>
<LI><A HREF = "Section_packages.html">Packages</A> 

<LI><A HREF = "Section_accelerate.html">Accelerating SPARTA performance</A> 

<UL>  5.1 <A HREF = "Section_accelerate.html#acc_1">Measuring performance</A> 
<BR>
  5.2 <A HREF = "Section_accelerate.html#acc_2">Packages with optimized styles</A> 
<BR>
  5.3 <A HREF = "Section_accelerate.html#acc_3">KOKKOS package</A> 
<BR></UL>
<LI><A HREF = "Section_howto.html">How-to discussions</A> 

<UL>  6.1 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_1">2d simulations</A> 
<BR>
  6.2 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_2">Axisymmetric simulations</A> 
<BR>
  6.3 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_3">Running multiple simulations from one input script</A> 
<BR>
  6.4 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_4">Output from SPARTA</A> 
<BR>
  6.5 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_5">Visualizing SPARTA snapshots</A> 
<BR>
  6.6 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_6">Library interface to SPARTA</A> 
<BR>
  6.7 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_7">Coupling SPARTA to other codes</A> 
<BR>
  6.8 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_8">Details of grid geometry in SPARTA</A> 
<BR>
  6.9 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_9">Details of surfaces in SPARTA</A> 
<BR>
  6.10 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_10">Restarting a simulation</A> 
<BR>
  6.11 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_11">Using the ambipolar approximation</A> 
<BR>
  6.12 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_12">Using multiple vibrational energy levels</A> 
<BR>
  6.13 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_13">Surface elements: explicit, implicit, distributed</A> 
<BR>
  6.14 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_14">Implicit surface ablation</A> 
<BR>
  6.15 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_15">Transparent surface elements</A> 
<BR>
  6.16 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_16">Visualizing SPARTA output with ParaView</A> 
<BR>
  6.17 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_17">Custom per-particle, per-grid, per-surf attributes</A> 
<BR>
  6.18 <A HREF = "Section_howto.html#howto_18">Variable timestep simulations</A> 
<BR></UL>
<LI><A HREF = "Section_example.html">Example problems</A> 

<LI><A HREF = "Section_perf.html">Performance & scalability</A> 

<LI><A HREF = "Section_tools.html">Additional tools</A> 

<LI><A HREF = "Section_modify.html">Modifying & extending SPARTA</A> 

<UL>  10.1 <A HREF = "Section_modify.html#mod_1">Compute styles</A> 
<BR>
  10.2 <A HREF = "Section_modify.html#mod_2">Fix styles</A> 
<BR>
  10.3 <A HREF = "Section_modify.html#mod_3">Region styles</A> 
<BR>
  10.4 <A HREF = "Section_modify.html#mod_4">Collision styles</A> 
<BR>
  10.5 <A HREF = "Section_modify.html#mod_5">Surface collision styles</A> 
<BR>
  10.6 <A HREF = "Section_modify.html#mod_6">Chemistry styles</A> 
<BR>
  10.7 <A HREF = "Section_modify.html#mod_7">Dump styles</A> 
<BR>
  10.8 <A HREF = "Section_modify.html#mod_8">Input script commands</A> 
<BR></UL>
<LI><A HREF = "Section_python.html">Python interface</A> 

<UL>  11.1 <A HREF = "Section_python.html#py_1">Creating a shared MPI library</A> 
<BR>
  11.2 <A HREF = "Section_python.html#py_2">Extending Python with a parallel version of SPARTA</A> 
<BR>
  11.3 <A HREF = "Section_python.html#py_3">Extending Python with MPI</A> 
<BR>
  11.4 <A HREF = "Section_python.html#py_4">Testing the Python-SPARTA interface</A> 
<BR>
  11.5 <A HREF = "Section_python.html#py_5">Using SPARTA from Python</A> 
<BR>
  11.6 <A HREF = "Section_python.html#py_6">Example Python scripts that use SPARTA</A> 
<BR></UL>
<LI><A HREF = "Section_errors.html">Errors</A> 

<UL>  12.1 <A HREF = "Section_errors.html#err_1">Common problems</A> 
<BR>
  12.2 <A HREF = "Section_errors.html#err_2">Reporting bugs</A> 
<BR>
  12.3 <A HREF = "Section_errors.html#err_3">Error & warning messages</A> 
<BR></UL>
<LI><A HREF = "Section_history.html">Future and history</A> 

<UL>  13.1 <A HREF = "Section_history.html#hist_1">Coming attractions</A> 
<BR>
  13.2 <A HREF = "Section_history.html#hist_2">Past versions</A> 
<BR></UL>

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