Miki's lectures: Star-Planet Interaction simulations with PLUTO code


Aim of the lectures (here is the pdf) is to guide attendants to active using of the PLUTO code for star-planet magnetospheric interaction computations.

We will start with a brief astrophysical motivation on magnetospheric star-planet interaction, followed by an introduction to the PLUTO code. After a short description of numerical methods employed in the code, we will proceed with the code installation, testing and initial visualization of the results with gnuplot.
Next we will set a standard Orszag-Tang test in 2D and 3D and learn to use more advanced visualization tools like Paraview. I will also show the use of Python code for visualization and analysis.
I will show how to use a Linux cluster queuing systems for simulations.

Prerequisites: Free download of the latest version of PLUTO (current version is 4.4.2) is on PLUTO webpage.

Minimal working knowledge of Linux will be useful, on the level of using the terminal in a Linux system like Ubuntu, Fedora or any other version.
Login in a Linux system or a laptop with Linux partition, with access to C compiler and working Python (version 3.5), or equivalent in MS Win/MacOS environment will be needed.

Visualization tools like gnuplot and Paraview will be needed for easy visualization and animation of the results-I will show the basics of the use.

References: Mignone et al., 2007, Varela et al. 2018.


After you download and unpack PLUTO from the above page, it will be in the PLUTO directory. A manual is in the Doc directory.
Sod shock setups are in PLUTO/Test_Problems/HD/Sod
Orszag-Tang setups are in PLUTO/Test_Problems/MHD/Orszag_Tang

Links to Miki's code setups in links below are not working, please ask by email for the correct path-this is for traceability reasons, to know who is using them.

Star-planet interaction setup template for exoplanets is in SPI setup template.

If you use the above template in your work, remember that it took considerable time--and tax-payers funding--to develop them, so please make a reference to the PLUTO code, and the Jacobo Varela's paper mentioned above.



Last updated: July, 2023 by Miki. All rights reserved. Materials are available for download for personal use only. Any other use requires referencing of this webpage or prior permission of the author.


Back to my main page:

https://users.camk.edu.pl/miki/