PYSICA: PYthon tools for SImulation and CAlculus

Introduction

This package contains a collection of tools developed for some specific simulation and calculus tasks in some fields of physics, including nonthermal plasma discharges, as well as surface modification and analysis.

Package structure

In the following, the main modules and subpackages are listed. Additional documentation is available in the docstrings of each module and subpackage.

constants (module)

Contains some physical constants used in various modules and packages.

parameters (module)

Contains some parameters used in various modules and packages.

analysis (package)

Contains some modules to manage distribution functions and data histograms.

univariate (module)

tools for the statistical analysis of univariate samples;

bivariate (module)

tools for the statistical analysis of bivariate samples;

spectra (module)

tools for the analysis of different types of spectra, whith a special focus on:

• optical data (e.g. transmission spectra) of thin films;
• surface morphology data (e.g. surface roughness analysis).

functions (package)

Contains some general purpose functions.

fortran (package)

some general purpose functions, compiled from Fortran using f2py. They are collected in the fmathematics module.

mathematics (module)

some general purpose mathematical funtions.

statistics (module)

some generic statistics functions.

pdf (module)

some probabilty distribution functions (pdf).

random_pdf (module)

functions useful to generate random numbers following specific pdfs.

physics (module)

some general purpose funcions used in generic physics applications.

optics (module)

some functions useful for optical applications.

managers (package)

Contains some modules and packages used to manage input/output of data from/to ascii files, to print physical quantities managing the unit prefixes, and to plot data by means of the gnuplot program.

io (package)

some modules used for generic input-output management.

data_manager (module)

tools to manage data reading and writing from files;

unit_manager (module)

tools to manage the output of numerical data with automatic managment of unit prefixies;

gnuplot_manager (package)

a package to facilitate the use of gnuplot inside python [1].

plasma (package)

A package containing tools for the simulation of plasma discharges.

ccpla (package)

a package containing scripts, modules, and subpackages used to simulate low pressure capacitively coupled discharges.

Installing and importing pysica

Dependancies

This package depends heavily on numpy and matplotlib, while some specific modules and packages depend on scipy also. Some packages make use of tkinter and of the gnuplot progam, but they should work also without it, although without some features.

How to install

pysica is distribuited as a pypi wheel so, if you have pip installed on your system, you can simply type at the console:

$ pip install pysica

In some linux distributions (e.g. Debian-related ones) you will have to install the package inside a python virtual environment, since the operative system doesn't allow pip to install software in the main file hierarchy. You can find instructions on how to create a virtual environment here.

How to import

Once installed, you can import pysica using the import directive as usual:

>>> import pysica

Or you can import a single mudule or package that you need, such as:

>>> from pysica.managers import gnuplot_manager

or

>>> from pysica.analysis import spectra

Documentation

Documentation about the modules and packages is available in the docstrings. Additional documentation can be found in the doc directory of the GitHub repository.