Preface

Welcome to the AMReX-Astro Microphysics!

In this User’s Guide we describe the microphysics modules designed to enable simulations of stellar explosions.

The original design was to support the AMReX codes CASTRO and MAESTRO. These all have a consistent interface and are designed to provide the users of those codes an easy experience in moving from the barebones microphysics modules provided in those codes. For the purposes of this user’s guide, the microphysical components we currently deal with are the equation of state (EOS) and the nuclear burning network.

Microphysics is not a stand-alone code. It is intended to be used in conjunction with a simulation code. At the moment, the interfaces and build stubs are compatible with the AMReX codes. In many cases we will provide test modules that demonstrate a minimal working example for how to run the modules (leveraging the AMReX build system). The goal is to make the support more general, and extend to other codes in the future.

A number of the routines contained here we authored by other people. We bundle them here with permission, usually changing the interfaces to be compatible with our standardized interface. We in particular thank Frank Timmes for numerous reaction networks and his equation of state routines.