Installation

To clone and run this application, you’ll need Git.

The latest development version is available directly from our GitHub Repo. To start, clone the repository:

$ git clone https://github.com/McFACTS/McFACTS
$ cd McFACTS

User Setup

Navigate to the McFACTS/ directory and run

pip install .

Developer Setup

Navigate to the McFACTS/ directory and run

python -m pip install --editable .

See the pip install documentation for more information on all the available features.

Done! Below are some extra commands that you might find helpful:

Running McFACTS

Try a default McFACTS run and make some visualizations:

# Using the Makefile
$ make plots

# Invoking the Python Script
$ python scripts/mcfacts_sim.py --fname-ini ./recipes/model_choice.ini --seed 3456789108

Our default inputs are located at ./recipes/model_choice.ini. Edit this file or create your own my_model.ini file with different inputs.

To use a different ini file, replace the file path after the --fname-ini argument:

$ python mcfacts_sim.py --fname-ini /path/to/my_model.ini

Output Files

Output files will appear in runs/. For each timestep, there will be an output_bh_single_ts.dat and output_bh_binary_ts.dat where ts is the timestep number (0-N)—these files track every single/binary in the simulation at that timestep.

The entire run will have a single output_mergers.dat file, which gives the details of every merger throughout the run. If you are trying to get distributions of merger properties, you probably only need output_mergers.dat, but if you are trying to track the history of individual mergers or want to know the state of the nuclear star cluster after an AGN of some duration, you will want the larger output suite.