Engrenage (the code formerly known as BabyGRChombo)

Engrenage is a spherically symmetric BSSN code designed for teaching Numerical Relativity (NR), which is the solution of the Einstein Equations of General Relativity (GR) using numerical methods. The code includes a scalar field (obeying the Klein Gordon equation for a minimally coupled spin 0 field) as the matter source of the metric curvature. It currently includes two physical examples - a black hole and a real scalar boson star (or oscillaton).

Warning: This code was not designed to be a good example of optimised python usage or even of numerical relativity. The goal was to write a code where some non trivial physical examples could be studied and users could get an overview of the different parts of a numerical relativity code in action, without the optimisation and level of detail that exists in a typical research code like its parent GRChombo.

For more information and class resources see the wiki.

(Engrenage is the French word for a system of gears. Understanding any code is very much like understanding how the parts of a mechanical system fit together. It is also very common when coding to be "pris dans l'engrenage".)

Installation

Note that if you already have an installation of python3 including Jupyter, and don't want to add to the code, you could just download the zip file of the repository and save it somewhere manually.

The "correct" way to do it is as follows:

1. Fork and clone this repository (or just download the zipped files).

2. Having obtained a python distribution on your computer (if you are just starting out you may want to use Anaconda), create a Python environment (e.g. in ./env) using the terminal command:

   python3 -m venv ./env

3. Activate the environment and install the Python requirements:

   # Activate the Python environment
   . ./env/bin/activate
   # Install the requirements
   pip install -r ./requirements.txt

4. Run the Jupyter notebook:

   jupyter notebook

Acknowledgements

This code is based on a private spherically adapted (but not spherically symmetric) code by Thomas Baumgarte, and the NRpy code of Zac Etienne, in particular the formalism used closely follows that described in the papers Numerical relativity in spherical polar coordinates: Evolution calculations with the BSSN formulation and SENR/NRPy+: Numerical relativity in singular curvilinear coordinate systems.

This code has also benefitted from input from Nils Vu @nilsvu ("You don't use python environments? I don't even know where to start..."), Leo Stein @duetosymmetry ("Why wouldn't you use the existing numpy functions for that?") and bug spotting from Cristian Joana @cjoana and Cheng-Hsin Cheng @chcheng3 when this code debuted at the ICERM Numerical Relativity Community Summer School in August 2022, and David Sola Gil @David-Sola-Gil in the London LTCC course February 2023. Thanks also to Marcus Hatton @MarcusHatton for the addition of animation to the figures.

The main developer of engrenage is Katy Clough, who is supported by a UK STFC Ernest Rutherford Fellowship ST/V003240/1.