Revision History

The following lists revision summaries for PROPACEOS:

Version 10.0.0

• Several significant changes in physics modules have been implemented. For more information on the models please refer to an appendix in the documentation titled "Physics Models Improvements April 2024"
• Photon energy grid refinement for both photo-absorption and spectral modeling.
• Continuum lowering model avoids destroying transitions just below the ionization threshold.
• Including more line wings in bound-bound emissivities.
• Extrapolation of photo-ionization cross sections below depressed ionization potential.
• Automatic adjustment of time steps for non-local time dependent population solver.
• Improved binning algorithms for computing Planck and Rosseland averages at high values of hv/kT.

Version 9.5.0

• Improved continuum lowering model where the electron density and the amount of IPD are determined self consistently with a combination of iteration and bisection techniques was implemented. This model can significantly affect ionization balance, especially for low temperature plasma. More details on the model can be found in the appendix of the main documentation.
• Improved consistency in modeling IPD for mixtures of elements.
• New block matrix population solver for large atomic systems has been implemented. For atomic models containing over 20000 levels, the new solver is expected to use significantly less memory, and faster by at least a factor of few.More details on the model can be found in the appendix of the main documentation.
• Improved models for ion contribution for Stark broadening. Previously, the effect of ion contribution could have been significantly overestimated at lower densities.
• Added support for new distribution of FAC atomic data (v. 1.5.0U)
• Updates were made to better support graphics on high-resolution monitors.
• Ionization Fraction results can now be plotted, either by pressing the Ion Fractions button on the left side of the Main Window, or by selecting the Display | Ion Fractions Data menu item. They can be plotted vs. Ionization Stage (giving an ionization distribution), or for a given stage vs. temperature or density. The interface uses a new plot window:



• Bug fixes:
  • Previously, very large tables could cause a gui crash when trying to plot opacities directly after running a calculation. This has been fixed, and plotting will not be allowed if the results do not fit in memory.
  • Fixed bug that occurred when reading in old PROPACEOS results after performing a PROPACEOS simulation that had a different frequency group structure than the old data file.

Version 9.1.0

• For consistent opacity calculations at high temperatures, the highest photon energy for opacity grid should be at least an order of magnitude higher than the highest requested temperature. A warning is issued in the beginning of the calculation if this condition is not met.
• For NLTE calculations, the computational efficiency is improved by sharing atomic populations in EOS and opacity calculations when the grid points are the same.
• For NLTE calculations, consistency checks were added for extrapolating atomic cross-sections to high energies.
• Consistency checks were added to occupation probability model to prevent possible scenarios where the occupation probability of an excited state is greater than that of the ground state within the same ionization.
• Improved computational efficiency for pressure broadening algorithms of transitions in neutral atoms.
• Improved models for re-binning existing opacity tables:
  • Improved consistency for EOS quantities in re-binned files.
  • Disallow combining multiple tables to prevent inconsistencies in EOS quantities. Please contact Prism if you want this feature to be re-enabled.
  • Re-binned files now contain data for ionization fractions.
  • Disabled option for LTE/NLTE kinetics. Re-binned files will have atomic kinetics option that was used in the original table.
  • QEOS option for re-binning is only possible when the original table contains QEOS model.
• Bug fixes:
  • On some Windows computers that use scaled desktop resolution, corruption of graphics could occur. This behavior has been fixed.
  • Fixed potential crashes when using "Treat implicit multiply exited transitions in details" option for the elements with a large number of implicit transitions.
  • Fixed potential problems with extrapolating photoionization cross-sections. This may affect opacities at very high photon energies
  • Prevent possible numerical issues due to underflows when computing Planck and Rosseland averages at high values of hv/kT.

Version 9.0.0

• This version is built with a new version of Qt - a cross-platform framework for creating user interfaces and graphics. This is a major upgrade to the long-term support version of Qt 6.2.x. It was required to ensure stable operation of Prism software the most recent Windows, Mac, and Linux operating systems.
• New Stark broadening models were implemented based on the semi-empirical approach detailed in Gu and Beirsdorfer (Phys. Rev. A, 101, 032501). Users of Prism software can control whether to use the old or the new Stark broadening model in preferences for each application. The default option is to use the new model. For more information on the models please refer to a appendix in the documentation titled Stark Broadening Models in Prism Codes.

  

  Depending upon plasma conditions and composition, the new Stark broadening model may have a significant impact on the spectral distribution Figures below show the results of the simulations for:

  Typical Ar K-shell emission spectrum from ICF implosions

  

  Calculations of Oxygen opacities

  

• Added option to request PROPACEOS tables readers for FLASH hydro code.

  

• Bug fixes:
  • Previously, for non-LTE calculations, if either "Use non-zero thickness" or "Include hot electrons" was selected, but the user then changed it back to LTE, the calculation would still run grid points for non-zero thickness and/or hot electrons. This has been fixed.
  • Previously, if populations did not converge, a warning message would be shown for every grid point in the calculation. Now, the calculation will end with that message appearing only once.

Version 8.5.0

• Implemented support for atomic data generated by FAC. For more details, see attachment titled "FAC Atomic Data in Prism Codes" in the main documentation.
• PrOpacEOS will be distributed with a standard set of FAC-generated data. Custom user-generated data are supported as well. The data need to be generated with the latest version of FAC available at GitHub.

  

  Simulation results for Ar-doped DD plasma at 600 eV temperature and 1 g/cc density computed with FAC and ATBASE data. Ar He-alpha transition and associated Li-like satellites.

• Added support for Big Sur operating system on both Intel- and M1-based computers.
• Linux users working in a KDE 5 desktop environment will likely experience very slow graphics performance. Use of KDE 5 is discouraged for the time being.
• Updated algorithms and libraries for software activation.

Version 8.0.0

• Additional options for independent variables are available in a Beta version of PROPACEOS. These options are currently only available to a limited user base.

  The additional independent variable options are relevant to non-LTE plasma only. The variables are:

  • Plasma size (available for EOS and opacity calculations)
  • Three hot electron modeling parameters (available for opacity calculations only)

  

   

  For finite size plasmas, the plasma size is specified in terms of an areal density (ρ ΔL), and the calculation is performed for a planar plasma with thickness ΔL. When these calculations are performed, photoionization and photoexcitation processes are included in the calculation of atomic level populations.

  When hot electron modeling is included, the contribution of a non-Maxwellian component to the electron distribution is included when computing atomic level populations. For hot electron modeling, currently one model is supported (Model A). For this case, the hot electron density is modeled using a Gaussian distribution function. Here, the user specifies:

  • the hot electron density
  • the peak energy of the distribution
  • the ratio of the standard deviation (σ) to the peak energy
  • the minimum and maximum range of the non-Maxwellian component of the energy distribution.

  The distribution is normalized such that the total hot electron density is equal to the specified value.

• A new PROPACEOS output file format ID (ID = 9) is now available, which is used to support the use of finite plasma sizes and hot electrons.
• Plotting in EOS Results window: Updates were made to support calculations which have the additional independent variables related to plasma size and hot electron distribution. In addition, new graphics library classes are now utilized when showing the EOS data.
• Plotting in Opacity Results window: Updates were made to support calculations which have the additional independent variables related to plasma size and hot electron distribution.
• The Preferences window now has an additional tab for setting default paths for atomic data and eos/opacity data on Windows (this tab already existed on Mac and Linux).
• Bug fixes:
  • Viewing results of a very large table will no longer lead to a crash
  • Viewing results of tables with 6 or more elements no longer leads to issues (some wrong atomic values on Windows, crash on Linux and Mac)
  • Opacities button is now grayed out when a Sesame file is loaded (only available to certain users)