Glossary

ALEGRA

A multi-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamics code developed at Sandia National Laboratories.

ATBASE

A suite of atomic physics codes designed to generate high-quality atomic data for collisional-radiative spectral analysis simulations. It utilizes a suite of atomic structure and modeling codes, including Hartree-Fock, Dirac-Fock, configuration interaction, and distorted wave codes. For more information, see the Prism ATBASE web site.

atomic model file

A file, used as input to PrismSPECT, SPECT3D, or HELIOS-CR, that contains information on selection and collapsing of atomic energy levels. Atomic model files are generated by, and can also be edited by, AtomicModelBuilder.

AtomicModelBuilder

Application to enable users to build custom atomic model files. Supports selection of and "bundling" of atomic energy levels contained in atomic data base (ATBASE) files.

base superconfiguration

A superconfiguration in which all subshells are collapsed into shells. See collapsing example.

CTH

A multi-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamics code developed at Sandia National Laboratories.

collapse model

A set of parameters used to specify how the energy levels in a given base superconfiguration are collapsed.

configuration-averaged

Model in which all levels of an electronic configuration (e.g., 1s²2s²2p¹) are bundled into a single energy level. See collapsing example.

connectivity

The arrangement of nodes in the spatial grid. That is, for each volume element in the grid, the node indices which bound the volume element.

Detailed Configuration Accounting (DCA)

Modeling individual energy levels and transitions explicitly in the calculation. For DCA elements, atomic models (either default or custom) must be specified. For non-DCA materials, energy levels are not explicitly included in the calculation, and frequency-dependent opacities are obtained from table look-up (table opacity data is pre-computed typically under the assumption of LTE). For more information, see Materials setup.

DRACO

A multi-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamics code developed at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics.

EPOCH

An open source particle-in-cell (PIC) code for high energy density physics developed at the University of Warwick.

EXODUS

A data format model developed at Sandia National Laboratories based on the NetCDF data model.

FLASH

A multiphysics, multiscale simulation code developed at the University of Chicago ((http://flash.uchicago.edu/site/).

GridCONVERT

An application used to convert spatial grid data generated by various plasma/hydrodynamics codes to EXODUS format for use in SPECT3D.

HELIOS and HELIOS-CR Radiation-Hydrodynamics Codes

HELIOS is a 1-D radiation-hydrodynamics code that is used to study the dynamic evolution of plasmas. HELIOS-CR is a version of HELIOS that includes inline collisional-radiative atomic physics modeling. For more information on HELIOS, see the Prism HELIOS web site.

HYDRA

A multi-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamics code developed at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

ICF (Inertial Confinement Fusion)

Inertial confinement fusion is a concept of producing fusion energy (via the same nuclear reactions that power the Sun and stars) from the compression of light elements to very high temperature and density. One of the main objectives in ICF research is the development of Inertial Fusion Energy for generating commercial electric power.

Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium (LTE)

A state in which the atomic level populations are defined by Boltzmann statistics and the Saha equation using a local temperature (which defines a Maxwellian electron distribution). When populations are in LTE, the plasma emissivity, η_ν, is related to the absorption coefficient, κ_ν, and the Planck function, B_ν, by: η_ν = κ_ν B_ν.

LSP

A multi-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) code developed at Mission Research Corporation.

NETCDF format

The NetCDF data model is described at http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/software/netcdf/. Please contact support@prism-cs.com for details on the quantities expected in the file.

ODIN

A radiation-hydrodynamics code developed at the University of Warwick.

Opacity tables

Default opacity tables contain 500 groups logarithmically spaced from 0.1 eV (infrared) to 10^5 eV (hard x-ray). Within each group, the spectrally-resolved opacities are appropriately integrated, thus opacities are called mean. The tables also contain single-group (grey) mean opacities, those are integrated into a single group for the entire energy range 10^-1 - 10^5eV. Single-group opacities are the ones displayed in Hydroplot. For LTE tables (default tables for HELIOS), absorption and emission tables are identical, for NLTE - they can be different.

PDB/SILO format

A PDB file written by the SILO library (https://wci.llnl.gov/simulation/computer-codes).

PIC code

A particle-in-cell code, such as the LSP code.

PlasmaGEN

PlasmaGen is a utility in the SPECT3D package that generates user-specified temperature and density distributions in a variety of 1-D and 2-D geometries.

PROPACEOS

PROPACEOS is the Prism Opacity and Equation of State code and data library. For more information, see the Prism PROPACEOS web site.

 

SDF

A data format model developed at the University of Warwick.

SPECT3D

The SPECT3D imaging and spectral analysis package computes images and spectra that can be compared with experimental data. In simulating spectra and images, SPECT3D utilizes plasma temperature and density distributions from: 1-D, 2-D, or 3-D radiation-hydrodynamics codes; 1-D or 2-D distributions from the PLASMAGEN plasma grid generation code; or a simple single-cell plasma.

SPECT3D Visualizer

A visualization tool for viewing the output of simulations performed in SPECT3D. SPECT3D Visualizer allows users to conveniently display: space-integrated spectra, 1-D space-resolved spectra, streaked spectra, framing camera images, and optical depth contour images.

SpectraPLOT

A visualization tool for viewing the output of simulations performed in SPECT3D. It is being developed as a replacement for SPECT3D Visualizer.

superconfiguration

A collection of atomic energy levels grouped together. When used in collisional-radiative calculations, the use of superconfigurations can significantly reduce CPU and memory requirements.

VISRAD

VISRAD is a view factor code that simulates the radiation field environment for three-dimensional objects, and provides visualization tools for setup and displaying results. For more information, see the Prism VISRAD web site.